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The Citizen's Library of Economics, Politics and Sociology 

=============== New Series ■ 

Edited by RICHARD T. ELY, Ph.D., LL.D. 
Professor of Political Economy in the University of Wisconsin 



THE WORLD WAR AND 
LEADERSHIP IN A DEMOCRACY 




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THE CITIZEN'S LIBRARY OF ECONOMICS, 
POLITICS AND SOCIOLOGY 

edited by 
Richard T. Ely, Ph.D., LL.D. 

Professor of Political Economy in the University 
of Wisconsin 

NEW SERIES 

The Progressive Movement. By Benjamin P. De 
Witt, M.A., LL.B. 

The Social Problem. By Charles A. Ellwood, 
Ph.D. 

The Wealth and Incoivie of the People of the 
United States. By Willford I. King, Ph.D. 

The Foundations of National Prosperity. By 
Richard T. Ely, Ph.D., LL.D.; Ralph H. Hess, 
Ph.D.; Charles K. Leith, Ph.D.; Thomas Nixon 
Carver, Ph.D., LL.D. 

The World War and Leadership in a Democ- 
racy. By Richard T. Ely, Ph.D., LL.D. 

Budget Making in a Democracy. By Major Ed- 
ward A. Fitzpatrick. 



The Citizen^ s Library 

THE WORLD WAR AND 

LEADERSHIP IN A 

DEMOCRACY 



BY 
KICHARD T. ELY, Ph.D., LL.D. 

Professor of Political Economy in the 
University of Wisconsin 



Jl3eto gorfe 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1918 

All rights reserved 



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Copyright, 1918 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Set up and electrotyped. Published, September, 1918 



©aAr)U620i 



PEEFACE 

This little work has grown out of a patriotic lec- 
ture delivered at the University of California, 
November last, and repeated with certain variations 
elsewhere. The book still shows traces of its origin 
in the form of the direct address and the use of the 
pronoun in the first person. At first there was no 
intention of publishing the lecture but, as it has 
grown, my friends have urged its publication, en- 
couraging me to believe that the book will render a 
real service at the present juncture. 

While the lecture has been very greatly elaborated, 
the book is still very brief. Each of the several 
chapters could be expanded to an entire treatise. 
Perhaps, however, what is needed now is an out- 
line programme for present use. 

It is not without certain regret and sadness that I 
have written that part of this work which relates 
to Germany. Those who, like myself, have lived 
in Germany, have had German friends, and have ex- 
perienced a good deal of kindness in Germany, will 
readily enough understand my position. I have 
given the same answer to the question, '^Should I 
publish what I know by my own experience and ob- 



4? Preface 

servationf that others similarly situated have 
given. I have felt that I had no option. 

President Wilson has frequently separated the 
leaders of Germany from the great mass of the 
German people, and others have done the same thing. 
As time has gone on, we have come to see that there 
is not the separation that we had supposed there was, 
but we have come to see that the great people as 
such has gone wrong. After the war it will become 
apparent that there has been widespread disap- 
proval on the part of many Germans of the things 
that we abhor, and many who have not been able 
to take the right view of the situation will have their 
eyes opened after the illumination of defeat. 

The inconsistencies in life are puzzling. This is 
a trite saying, but the truth of it is something that 
comes again and again to those who have long known 
Germany and have studied her past and present. It 
is for the psychologist, however, rather than the 
economist to explain the union of qualities that seem 
incompatible. I well understand that some things 
said in this book seem quite inconsistent with other 
things, but the inconsistencies lie in the facts. 

We have been disappointed in the German uni- 
versities. After the war it is my belief that we 
shall find that the best leadership in Germany will 
come from the universities and that it is to them 
that Germany will have to look more than to any 
other one source for leadership and regeneration. 



Preface 5 

I have not tried to underestimate Germany's 
strength. Surely nothing is to be gained by so do- 
ing. It is a pity that her strength was not fully 
understood before the war. Many have said since 
the war began, ''Why were we not told before about 
Germany's plans? Why did not the men who lived 
in Germany and who were familiar with Germany 
tell us about what was going on?" There are many 
who gave the warning, but they were preaching to 
deaf ears. This applies to Germany's strength 
along economic lines as well as to her military 
strength. 

There is not much satisfaction in saying, ''I told 
you so," but there are many who are in a position to 
say this. Lord Eoberts in England went up and 
down the land sounding the alarm, urging military 
preparation, but although it was a noble spectacle 
to see the efforts of this patriotic old man, he was 
looked upon as a veritable Cassandra. Whatever I 
did has no significance except as an indication of the 
situation. I remember, however, that when I was 
in England in 1913, I urged the importance of mili- 
tary preparation, but the English seemed to be blind 
to what was going on. When I went to Germany 
from England, the Germans asked, almost in a 
whisper, ''What do the English think of us? What 
are the English doing?" They seemed to have a 
perfect obsession of England. Had I told them the 
truth, I would have said, "The English are thinking 



6 Preface 

little about you and saying still less/' and the more 
the pity. The English had their own troubles. 
They were thinking about Ireland, the great British 
Commonwealthj the problems of labor and capital: 
all sorts of things, but not about Germany and not 
about universal military service. I talked with those 
who were high enough in authority so that I am con- 
fident they represented the opinion of the Govern- 
ment. They told me that whatever happened, it 
would never be necessary for England to send sol- 
diers out of the country; their navy was quite ade- 
quate for all their needs so far as any possible 
European war might be concerned! It is to be 
hoped that we and our allies will now study calmly 
and fairly the German sources of strength and learn 
in time from our enemy the lessons that we need to 
learn. 

Many friends have been sufficiently interested in 
this work to read my manuscript and to them I am 
deeply grateful for criticisms which have helped to 
give it such merit as the gentle reader may find that 
it possesses. Three names I must especially men- 
tion for their careful detailed examination of the 
manuscript. These are, Mrs. Olin Ingraham, form- 
erly as Miss Sydney E. Horsley, my secretary; Pro- 
fessor E. A. Eoss, who has twice read the manu- 
script with care and also the proof; and Professor 
Edward D. Jones of the University of Michigan, 



Preface 7 

who has given many valuable suggestions, some of 
which have found expression in the notes, and espe- 
cially has written the appendix on ' ' The Danger of 

Illusions." 

RiCHAED T. Ely. 

University of Wisconsin, 
Madison, August, 1918. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chapter I — Prelude: — Personal Experiences and 

Observations . 15 

The problem of racial antecedents. 
Only one side for an American to take in this world 
war. 

Chapter II — AVhy We are at "War 18 

Causes of the war found in the implications of Ger- 
many's tribal religion and tribal ethics. 

The American missionaries contrast the conduct of the 
Germans and Russians as seen in Armenia. 

German autocracy as viewed by the kings of Prussia. 

Frederick William IV refuses to receive the crown from 
the people in 1848. 

Religion in Germany. 

Prussia and Germany contrasted. 

Why we must fight until a military conquest is achieved. 

Illustrations of German brutality. , 

The cult of war in Germany. 
. The young lieutenant who desired war. 

Bluntschli and Knies and their work for international 
peace and good will typical of Heidelberg in the 
seventies and eighties. 

The exclusive nationalistic tendencies gain the upper 
hand. 

German war propaganda. 

Germany as a republic. 

Chapter III — The Forces of Darkness Gain the 

Upper Hand 36 

German exploitation of foreigners. 

9 



10 Contents 

PAGE 

Inability to understand the psychology of other nations. 
Professor Brentano's position in Munich in 1913. 
Max Harden's plea for war. 
Germany desires war and prepares for it. 
The German emperor desires to be Emperor of the 
World. 



Chapter IV — The Characteristics of a German 

"World State 45 

Prussian Poland illustrates what the conquered may ex- 
pect from Germany. 

This is also illustrated by Schleswig-Holstein and Al- 
sace-Lorraine. 

The exploitation of Russia by Germany as seen in 1879. 

War between Russia and Germany predicted. 

English colonial administration illustrated by my ex- 
perience in New Zealand in 1914. 

German colonial administration illustrated by the atti- 
tude of the natives of Samoa. 

Great prosperity of Germany in 1914 and the needless- 
ness of the world war. 

Chapter Y — Sources of the German Strength . . 54 

Germany's strength as found in her army. 
Germany's strength as found in her civil service. 
Leadership in Germany. 
Excellence recognized and rewarded and thus leadership 

encouraged. 
Encouragement of leadership in the German university. 
To win the war and solve present and future problems 

we must systematically develop leadership in 

America. 

Chapter VI — The Struggle for Equality of Oppor- 
tunity IN American History 65 

The eighteenth century social philosophy of equality 
and its consequences for leadership. 



Contents 11 

PAGE 

The simple economic life of the eighteenth century and 
the earlier part of the nineteenth century in har- 
mony with the social philosophy of the time. 

The absence of social legislation in our early history. 

The twentieth century and the struggle for equality of 
opportunity. 

The social implications of biological science. 

Inequalities among men and their significance in the 
struggle for equality of opportunity. 

Consequences of the eighteenth century philosophy as 
seen in our schools. 

How it has come that we look down upon manual labor 
and fail to provide education to correspond with 
the differences in natural gifts of men and women. 

Responsibilities of the superior. 

Leadership growing in significance as our economic and 
public life expands, particularly as public expendi- , 
tures increase. 

Encouragement of excellence in England and Germany. 

The educational ladder in these countries and in the 
United States. 

Equality of opportunity includes opportunity for the 
few as well as for the many. 

Chapter VII — Tests of Actual and Proposed Social 

AND Political Mjbasures ...... 91 

Primary elections condemned in a complex democracy 
as not promoting leadership of a high order. 

Direct legislation suitable for a primitive democracy but 
not for the complex American society of the twen- 
tieth century. 

Representative democracy to be encouraged. 

The short ballot a progressive measure. 

The recall condemned as opposed to expert leadership. 

Fixed terms of elective office favored but longer terms de- 
sirable. 

Administrative office should be professional in character 
and afford a career. 

Labor, Business, and Leadership. 



12 Contents 

PAGE 

Chapter VIII — The Foundation of Leadership . . 103 

The foundations of leadership are found in the individ- 
uals led. 

Significance of education as a foundation of leadership. 

Individual character and leadership. 

Religion and leadership. 

All social classes must co-operate. 

The kind of vision needed. 

Americanization. 

Universal service and leadership. 

Universal military service not the cause of militarism in - 
Germany. 

Other kinds of service than mihtary service, especially 
for women. 

Eugenics as a foundation. 

Leaders and the led. 

The demagogue and the true leader. 

Appendix to Chapter VIII — The Duty and Discipline 
Movement in England. A similar movement needed 
in the United States. 

Chapter IX — Ideals of Leadership 123 

Leadership and spoils politics. 
The Bolshevik ideals of leadership. 
Leadership and eugenics. 
Spiritual leadership. 
Leadership of the best. 
How shall we secure this. 

Leadership of kings in general and the Hohenzollems in 
particular and the terms of peace. 

Chapter X — Leadership in Public Life .... 133 

Military life and civic life. 
Obedience and its significance. 
Discipline in the army and its results. 
Legislation and administration. 
Leadership and legislation. 
Administration and leadership. 



Contents 13 

PAGE 

The professional office-holder and the honor office. 

How to cultivate initiative and invention in the civil 
service. 

An esprit de corps must be cultivated. 

The pseudo-efficiency expert and the deeper underlying 
causes of efficiency. 

The university and leadership. 

The future of the university and its relation to leader- 
ship. 

Special training schools for public service needed. 

Democratic sources of honor. 

Chapter XI — Six Lamps op Social Progress . . . 157 

Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity briefly discussed. 
The consequences of an undue emphasis on equality. 
Fraternity as a lamp of progress. 
Unity in diversity. 
-^ Leadership of the wise and good. 
The ideal of service as a lamp of progress. 
Liberty and its nature. 
Equality of opportunity as the goal. 

Appendix — The Danger of Illusions 164 

Communication to the author by Professor Edward D. 
Jones, University of Michigan. 

Notes and References 171 



THE WORLD WAR AND LEADERSHIP 
IN A DEMOCRACY 

CHAPTER I 

peelude: peesonal expeeien^ces and obseevations 

FiEST of all, let me state my own personal position. 
We are all Americans. But we or our ancestors 
have come from many ditferent parts of the world. 
Indeed, in our citizenship nearly all the nooks and 
corners of the world are represented. America is 
described as the world's great melting pot in which 
we all become fused into one product. It is a matter 
of frequent comment, however, that the melting pot 
has not been doing its work so well as we had thought. 
We have among us not only residents but citizens 
whose heart is against us in our struggle for our 
liberties and for those things which to most of us 
make life worth living in this world. We have spies, 
traitors and near-traitors among us. They come 
from all lands, and unhappily they do not all be- 
long to the newer immigrants who might find a meas- 
ure of excuse in the shortness of time they have had 
for Americanization. It may be freely conceded that 
the blood which flows in our veins from our ancestors 

15 



16 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

must make itself felt more or less and should make 
itself felt, not, to be sure, in anything even suggest- 
ing disloyalty, but in a rich diversity in unity. It is 
then perhaps proper to give my own racial point of 
approach and to say that I am of English ancestry. 
Doubtless the knowledge of this fact has its influ- 
ence upon my world-outlook. On the other hand, my 
university education, as distinguished from college 
education, was practically altogether German, and I 
have drawn inspiration, as well as instruction, from 
able German professors. Eepeatedly I have been 
in Germany since I finished my university studies, 
and have had many friends there. When in Ger- 
many I have eschewed largely things American. I 
have read German newspapers and German litera- 
ture and associated with German people. I have 
written articles on German life and German institu- 
tions and have a high appreciation of the excellencies 
of Germany. Before we were drawn into the War 
and even since then I have said several times in pub- 
lic that, however the War might terminate, certain 
German ideas had already conquered the world. As 
I look upon the present situation one of the sad fea- 
tures of the War is that it will be so much harder 
than it would be otherwise for us in this country to 
learn the lessons which we ought to learn from Ger- 
man experience, for it is my belief that our civiliza- 
tion will never be safe until we have learned thor- 
oughly certain of these lessons. 



Prelude. Personal Experiences and Observations IT 

But it is because I know Germany so well that in 
spite of my admiration for the good things which 
we find in Germany, I felt from the very beginning of 
the War that there was only one side for Americans 
to take. As time has gone on it has become clearer 
and clearer that we are fighting for freedom, — our 
own freedom and the world's freedom — and for our 
very civilization itself. I may also say just at this 
point that I have come rather slowly to the convic- 
tion that the Hohenzollerns and their connections 
must go, meaning thereby, of course, that they must 
lose their occupations as sovereigns. And when we 
root out the Hohenzollerns and their connections, it 
means practically that we are ridding the earth of 
monarchs, czars and emperors. Some may be left 
to play a useful role, like the King of England and 
the King of Belgium, but the dangerous, grasping, 
self -crowned rulers of the Hohenzollern type must 
disappear. I say that I have reached this conclu- 
sion slowly and somewhat reluctantly, as I have had 
in the past a high appreciation of the present Ger- 
man Emperor's efficiency and the fine work that he 
did in promoting the prosperity of Germany up to 
1914. He has, however, shown himself an enemy of 
the world and should follow the great Napoleon to 
a lifelong exile on St. Helena. 



CHAPTER II 



WHY WE ARE AT WAR 



We are at war because Germany has embraced a 
false religion, worships a false tribal god and prac- 
tices false tribal ethics. She does not recognize 
equal rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of hap- 
piness on the part of other nations. The Germans 
look upon themselves as the chosen people of God, 
especially dear to Him and destined through con- 
quest of the world to give us the benefits of a higher 
and to us alien civilization. All students of history 
will be able to cite examples of other nations which 
have considered themselves favored by the Almighty 
and which in carrying out their religious ideas have 
devastated large areas of the earth. Germany sug- 
gests in this respect Turkey, her ally, and the re- 
semblance is in many particulars a close one. We 
have on the one hand, little Belgium with all the 
horrors of that unhappy country since she has been 
groaning under the iron heel of the brutal conqueror, 
and, on the other hand, we have the massacres by 
the Turks of the Armenians which have occurred 
from time to time, the most brutal and devastating 
of them all being those that have taken place under 

18 



Why We Are at War 19 

German auspices since the alliance of Turkey with 
Germany. Is there much to choose between Bel- 
gium, on the one hand, and Armenia, on the other, 
as examples of the bloody and ruthless savagery of 
military conquest? 

Missionaries in Armenia at the time that the fierc- 
est conflicts were going on there between Eussia 
and Germany had occasion to contrast the brutality 
of the Germans with the good conduct of the Eus- 
sians. When the Eussians had the upper hand all 
the wounded were treated well in their hospitals. 
The Countess Tolstoi, the daughter of the great Tol- 
stoi, with the missionaries ministered to all who 
needed ministration. When the Germans came in, 
then began needless and unspeakable barbarities. 
Missionaries during the devastation of the country 
and the massacres of the Armenians have said in 
their amazement ^ ' To think that a word from the Ger- 
man Emperor could stop all of this !^' But the con- 
duct of the German Emperor and of the Turks under 
his leadership is in entire harmony with these often 
quoted words of the German Emperor which the 
civilized nations of the world should never forget: 

* ' Remember that you are the chosen people ! The Spirit 
of the Lord has descended upon me because I am the 
Emperor of the Germans ! I am the instrument of the Al- 
mighty. I am his sword, his agent. Woe and death to 
all those who shall oppose my will ! "Woe and death to 
those who do not believe in my mission ! Woe and death to 



20 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

the cowards ! Let them perish, all the enemies of the Ger- 
man people ! God demands their destruction. God who, 
by my month, bids yon to do His will ! " ^' ^ 

It adds to our compreliension of the foregoing to 
remember that the King of Prussia is self-crowned 
and in his opinion derives his power from Almighty 
God to whom alone he acknowledges full responsi- 
bility. The following quotation from a speech 
of Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg describes ac- 
curately the autocratic point of view of the Kings 
of Prussia : 

^'The kings of Prussia are united to the people 
through a logical evolution of several centuries. 
That evolution did not take such a course that the 
people created its kingdom; on the contrary, by a 
labor almost unexampled in history, it was its great 
chieftains issuing from the house of Hohenzollern, 
it was this house which finding a firm support in the 
capacity and tenacity of its population, it was this 
house which forged the Prussian state. Upon the 
basis of this historic evolution the Prussian consti- 
tution knows not the conception of popular sover- 
eignty. That is why the kings of Prussia are, so 
far as their own people are concerned, kings by their 
own right. Gentlemen, your laughter does not 
change history. And, if, at the present moment, 
from the democratic side, the pretension is ener- 
getically raised that the king of Prussia is to be re- 
garded as a great dignitary established by the peo- 



Why We Are at War 21 

pie, it is no matter for surprise if the king asserts 
with the same vigor his will never to submit to any 
popular sovereignty. The personal irresponsibility 
of the king, the self-sufficiency, original, autocratic, 
of the monarchical power, these are the fundamental 
ideas of the life of the Prussian state." — Chancellor 
Bethmann-Hollweg in the German Eeichstag. No- 
vember 26, 1910.^ 

This quotation is in harmony with the views ex- 
pressed by the adherents of Frussianism on many oc- 
casions and in many different ways, and in no wise 
misrepresents the prevailing Prussian autocratic 
doctrine. To be king ^'by Grace of God" is a good 
thing in so far as it represents humble dependence 
upon Higher Power and a feeling of stewardship. It 
is then simply one manifestation of a general relig- 
ious idea. But to the King of Prussia, it means pre- 
cisely haughty irresponsibility to the people, in other 
words, autocracy. 

It should never be forgotten that in 1848 the im- 
perial crown was offered to William Frederick the 
Fourth, and was declined by the haughty Hohen- 
zollern, because forsooth it came as a free will offer- 
ing from the people as a result of the uprising of the 
people in their aspirations for liberty and unity. 
Great, indeed, was the year 1848 in its potentiali- 
ties, — the year called the ^^ Springtime of the Peo- 
ples," a year of revolution led by the wise and good, 
by men like our own Carl Schurz and others who ac- 



22 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

companied him to America and becoming loyal 
Americans, heart and soul, took an honored posi- 
tion among our citizens. Had the Hohenzollerns 
led this revolution sanely and wisely they might 
have made Germany a leader among the nations of 
the earth in things immaterial as well as material, 
in things of the soul as well as things of the body. 
But to accept the crown from the people would have 
implied ultimately sovereignty of the people, and 
so it was rejected by the House of Hohenzollern, and 
a great evolutionary opportunity for Germany and 
humanity was lost. 

But war followed war^ — war with little Denmark, 
war with Austria and South Germany, war with 
France. To the Hohenzollerns war was holy and 
the fruits sacred and so the imperial crown was ac- 
cepted from the German princes after military vic- 
tories; and the German god, the leader of the Ger- 
man hosts, became to the Hohenzollerns the real 
source of the imperial crown, as this same god of 
the Germans, leader century after century in victori- 
ous robberies of the weak and unprepared, had been 
the source of the Prussian royal crown, both crowns 
untainted by the touch of the people.^ 

Americans have been shocked by the attitude of 
religious leaders in Germany with respect to the 
present War. If they had been more familiar with 
the position which religion occupies in the minds of 
German intellectual leaders, they would have been 



Why We Are at War 23 

better prepared for what has happened. No one 
would want to say that there are not in Germany 
many truly religious people to whom religion means 
a sincere belief in spiritual things. Nevertheless, it 
remains true that religion is fostered by the state 
as an agency to keep the masses in order. Every 
one who has been a student in Germany and who is 
at all observant knows that such is the case. I well 
recall that soon after myiirst arrival in Germany, I 
learned what position was taken toward religion by 
one of my favorite professors. He did not go to 
church, but thought it well worth while to keep up 
religion as something appropriate for servant girls. 
The religious bodies are subsidized in Germany and 
know very well what is expected of them. 

We are at war then with Germany because the Ger- 
mans as a mass are brutal, and especially are they 
brutal under the leadership of Prussia. Now, just 
a word at this point about Prussia and the relations 
of Prussia to other German states. The harsh mili- 
taristic leadership and the brutality in the treatment 
of inferiors, foreigners and all helpless persons, are 
characteristic of the Prussians. Prussia is hated 
very generally throughout Germany. Any one who 
has lived in Southern Germany knows how true it 
is that even the sight of a Prussian and especially of 
a group of Prussians is disliked outside of Prussia. 
I remember well certain conversations in 1911 and 
1913 in which ridicule was poured upon the Prussian 



24 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

summer visitors by people living in Munich, and 
this ridicule had in it elements of very positive dis- 
like and contempt. Since the war it has been said 
by a keen-eyed observer of my acquaintance who has 
long lived in Germany and has had very unusual 
facilities for observation that the present aim of 
Prussia is to spare, so far as possible, the lives of 
Prussians and to sacrifice the lives of the Germans 
of the other states wherever this is feasible, and un- 
der all circumtances, this observer assures me, the 
great ascendancy in number of the Prussians 'must 
be maintained. Consequently, the Prussian policy 
is to award honor and peril to the Bavarians and 
Germans from the other states. Thej^ are allowed 
to enter cities in triumph, in order to keep them con- 
tented while they suffer special losses. 

We are at war with Germany because Germany is 
brutal, and it is only defeat that can put her on the 
right road of penitence and amendment. There will 
be no repentance unless the war is fought to the bit- 
ter end and the Allies are crowned with complete vic- 
tory. This brutality is exhibited above all towards 
foreigners, but it is manifested in the German fam- 
ily and in all German relations where there is 
strength and authority, on the one hand, and weak- 
ness and dependence upon the other. I remember 
well the cries of a German wife while she was be- 
ing beaten in the dwelling above the " pension '' 
where I once lived in Heidelberg with a colonel and 



Why We Are at War 25 

Ms family. The colonel yielded to my entreaties for 
interference, but after all smiled in an indulgent 
way and did not seem to think the matter so serious, 
as, of course, it appeared to me an American. I 
remember also in Munich the cruelty and uncalled 
for harshness of a father to his daughter who was 
acting as his clerk and assistant in his store. All 
of these things are of daily occurrence, and every 
one who has lived in Germany can multiply examples 
without end. 

The kindly sentiments which in the past seemed 
natural to the Germans and which so many of us 
remember with pleasure have not been allowed to 
develop, to ripen, and to produce their proper 
''flowers and fruits,'' because they have been re- 
pressed by Prussianism. It is by no means insig- 
nificant that the German language has no word for 
gentleman,^ and they have to borrow the English 
word when they attempt to express the idea. How 
far Germany is from understanding all that goes 
with the idea of gentleman — gentleness as well as 
strength — can be seen on every hand. Witness the 
German officers going down ''Unter den Linden" 
and pushing aside or off the walk in their arro- 
gance German women who take it meekly and 
American women who deeply resent it. Consider 
the brutality of the German officer as shown at the 
time of the Zabern incident when he brutally at- 
tacked a lame shoemaker, and although found 



26 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

guilty of improper conduct was only nominally pun- 
ished, while the Emperor himself expressed ap- 
proval of this brutal insolence of the officer toward 
the common man by ostentatiously conferring spe- 
cial honor on the colonel of the regiment. Let me 
also narrate an incident which stands out clearly 
in my memory. It is a beautiful day in the Ehine- 
land. Nature is smiling on all. A party is taking 
an excursion up the mountain to see the National 
Monument (Nationaldenhmal) and the glorious 
view over the surrounding country. In going up 
the mountain by rail the desirable seats are those 
nearest the side of the coupes. Consequently, the 
passengers stand on the platform and wait for an 
opportunity to get their seats. An American lady 
has grasped the handles on the two sides of the en- 
trance and is entitled to get in first and to have her 
choice of the seats when a burly German, appar- 
ently an educated man, belonging to the upper 
classes, the kind of a man who in England or Amer- 
ica would be a gentleman, grasps this American lady 
and thrusts her aside, dragging in his meek German 
wife after him, thus beclouding and defiling the beau- 
ties of Nature. This is a sort of thing which might 
happen anywhere, but would happen ten times in 
Germany where it would happen once in England or 
America. It would be taken complacently in Ger- 
many, while in England and America it would arouse 
hot indignation. We are at war then with Germany 



Why We Are at War 27 

because, while there are many fine gentlemen in 
Germany, the idea of gentleman is not a living idea 
in the German militaristic system. 

We are at war because Germany has embraced a 
false religion and worships a false god. A part of 
the religion of Germany and its most outstanding 
feature is the cult of war. Physical force as seen 
in war is worshipped. The religion of war is exulted 
in and is taught to children in the schools.^ It per- 
vades the entire life of Germany. 

We all have heard much of Treitschke, Nietzsche, 
and Bernhardi. I will not dwell upon their teach- 
ings which have been described to us by so many 
writers and speakers since 1914. I speak of things 
of less importance, seemingly trivial in themselves, 
but things that taken together form a consistent 
whole; they are things of which I have personal 
knowledge, confirming and illustrating what we have 
learned from other sources. 

When I was a student in Heidelberg shortly be- 
fore 1880 I lived with a rather prominent family of 
some culture, education, and social position. The 
husband had died and the widow owned the house 
in which she lived and took a few boarders and room- 
ers. She was titled, but not noble, being called 
Frau Eath. Her young son was a lieutenant in 
the army, and I recall how shocked I was when I 
heard him express a longing for war. I asked him 
why he wanted war, and he went on to explain the 



28 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

slowness of advancement in time of peace and the 
desirability of war as affording him better prospects 
for promotion. He was entirely cold-blooded, not 
the slightest thought occurred to the young lieuten- 
ant of the horrors of war and of all the sufferings 
which it must inflict upon his own country as well 
as upon others. No one present, however, seemed 
to be the least surprised or shocked. This senti- 
ment in favor of war was undoubtedly widespread 
at that time and particularly in the army. 

What has just been said was, nevertheless, not 
typical of Heidelberg in my day. The note the 
young officer struck seemed to me then a discord- 
ant, jarring note, and it still stands out in my mem- 
ory as something out of harmony with the general 
situation. I like rather to think of Johann Kaspar 
Bluntschli, professor with the title of Gelieimrath, 
as typical of Heidelberg a generation ago. Blunts- 
chli was one of the great teachers under whom I 
studied in Heidelberg, a noble character and a lover 
of his fellow-men. Among his special friends were 
Laboulaye in France and Lieber in the United States. 
He liked to think of himself and these great friends 
as an inseparable trio, a clover leaf, and so they are 
represented in a little brochure on Bluntschli written 
by my colleague at the Johns Hopkins University, 
Dr. Herbert B. Adams. It was a grief to Bluntschli 
that the Franco-Prussian War caused an estrange- 
between him and Laboulaye. It is significant that 



Why We Are at War 29 

Bluntschli's chief interest was international law. 
He wrote a code of international law, calculated to 
promote international good will and international 
peace. That was his great thought, international 
peace. Bluntschli in his lectures to us students al- 
ways delighted in holding up the good qualities of 
men in other countries. I well remember how 
warmly he spoke about the magnanimity of Eng- 
land in releasing the Ionian Islands to Greece. I 
recall also that he spoke about Heligoland, that little 
island in the North Sea near Hamburg as really be- 
longing to Germany and what a great thing it would 
be if England would relinquish Heligoland. Later, 
alas ! she did this, illustrating how disastrously mis- 
placed generosity may be in international relations 
when it implies a weakening of defense on the part of 
one nation that is not matched by generous appre- 
ciation on the part of the other nation. 

Many other evidences of a situation in Heidelberg 
during the late seventies very unlike the present 
situation could be cited. Three illustrations of a 
friendly feeling toward foreigners and a striving 
for international amity will be given, and it will be 
seen that Bluntschli 's code of international law was 
not something standing isolated and alone but one 
manifestation of sentiments common to his col- 
leagues — and I must confess that in the University 
of Heidelberg in my day I myself recall nothing out 
of harmony with Bluntschli 's thoughts and feel- 



30 The World, War and Leadership in a Democracy 

ings. But Heidelberg was in Baden, and Baden was 
not then Prussia — any more than it is now — or even 
Bavaria ! 

Professor Carl Knies was my professor of poli- 
tical economy — my Meister — and a noble figure 
he was. A professor of olden type — a professor 
with idealism — a shrewd head, after all a little bit in 
the clouds. As Blunt schli worked for the establish- 
ment of international law, Knies worked for in- 
ternational money and wrote a little book called 
World Money (Weltgeld), advocating the getting 
together of nations for sound money with common 
features to facilitate international exchange. Knies 
deplored the action of Bismarck who was instru- 
mental in making the German mark just a little dif- 
ferent from the English shilling purposely to bring 
about a certain nationalistic peculiarity when it 
would have been very easy to secure a higher meas- 
ure of unity. 

A second illustration of the change that has 
come over Germany, and even Baden, since 1880 is 
seen in the failure of the efforts to introduce Eng- 
lish letters in printing and writing {lateinische 
Schrift). Very generally in my day the profess- 
ors in Heidelberg used our letters, but Bismarck and 
the ruling clique making war against this usage have 
succeeded by exhortation mingled with force in re- 
taining the distinctive German letters— awkward and 
eye-straining, but separate from the world move- 



Why We Are at War 31 

ment and therefore part of their perverted loyalty 

"BeutscUand uher AllesJ' 

The third illustration is found in the expulsion of 
French words and phrases from the every-day lan- 
guage of the people of Heidelberg. These French 
words and phrases were natural and fitted in well 
with the soft musical tones heard in Baden. They 
enriched the language but were not distinctively 
"deutscW' and they had to go in Heidelberg^ as 
well as elsewhere— a special piece of Prussianism 
because the French influence was never so great in 
Prussia and the use of French words and phrases 
was not so general in that state; indeed, seemed 
less appropriate to the Prussian genius! German 
words must always replace the foreign words no 
matter how cumbersome, so they are but pure Ger- 
man products— ec/i^ deutscli, as they say.^ The 
following quotation gives an amusing illustration. 

^^I was once sitting on the verandah of an hotel 
at Boppard, on the Rhine, when the commanding 
officer of the garrison of Ehrenbreitstein drove up 
in a motor-car. He pointed to a sign bearing the 
word ^Garage,' and said that if that word were not 
changed he would place that hotel out of bounds 
for all his officers and for all the men of his 
garrison. Next day, there appeared on the sign 
the word K raft wag eneinst ellraum— 'power-wa^gon- 

standing-in-room. ' 

' ' This is not a joke ; it is not really even humorous ; 



32 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

it is a very good instance of Prussian official atten- 
tion to detail. For the poor host of that hotel did 
not in the least want to do away with the French 
word. His principal clientele were French and Eng- 
lish to whom the word substituted would appear 
repellent and unintelligible. And this is merely a 
symptom of a vast process and of the vast struggle 
to which I have already alluded, and which has been 
continuing for forty years between the natural in- 
clination of the South German peoples towards the 
French language and French forms of culture, and 
the Prussian determination to Germanise any ter- 
ritory over which, by fair means or by foul, it can 
exercise an influence. ' ' "' 

But even as early as 1880 we had counter forces 
at work in Germany, forces represented by Bis- 
marck with his doctrine of ^ 'blood and iron'' {Eisen 
und_ Blut). Especially pertinent in this connec- 
tion is von Moltke's open letter to Bluntschli in 
which he said of Bluntschli 's striving for peace, 
''What you wish is only a dream, and at that not 
even a beautiful dream." I am sure Bluntschli 
was very much grieved to find himself opposed by 
the great General von Moltke. 

Two different tendencies were struggling for the 
upper hand at that time in Germany. Powers of 
light and powers of darkness were in conflict, and 
the powers of darkness have won the upper hand 
during the regime of the present Emperor and un- 



Why We Are at War 33 

der the influences proceeding from him and his asso- 
ciates. 

But on the whole in Germany and, particularly in 
Heidelberg", in 1880 the atmosphere was one of peace 
and of liberty. That was the impression which I had 
in Heidelberg — beautiful peace and spacious liberty. 

We are at war to restore in Germany the condi- 
tions which prevailed in older and better days and 
thus it is that we are at war for the German people, 
whose military masters we are determined to over- 
throw and utterly destroy. With her lost soul re- 
covered what a glorious federal republic Germany 
would make ! For with opportunity for a free, spon- 
taneous evolution, the better, kindlier qualities of 
the Germans would flower and fruit in good works 
at home and abroad. No other people have better 
foundations for national prosperity of a high order. 
Among these foundations may be mentioned re- 
spect for authority, ability to work together splen- 
didly in cooperative undertakings, love of learning, 
true admiration for the artist and scholar, and such 
a generous provision for research as perhaps no 
other land knows, and the best civil service in the 
world; exemplified particularly in the government 
of German cities, often democratic and liberal — a 
fine showing of Germany and the Germans at their 
best. 

But at this point a word of caution is necessary. 
When it is said that Germany would make a glori- 



34 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

ous republic, it does not carry with it the meaning 
that if the form of government were changed, we 
could negotiate a peace with Germany. People and 
government are now united and even a change in 
constitutional forms will not produce an immediate 
change in the German outlook upon the world and 
German thought and sentiment toward other na- 
tions. The educational and religious work of gen- 
erations cannot be suddenly undone, and the Ger- 
man acquired characteristics changed. The point 
is that the hated characteristics are acquired, not 
innate, and that the processes of democracy with 
its different kind of leadership will make possible 
the acquisition of other characteristics, when once 
the Germans see and feel the suffering and loss of 
war, so that they will no longer proclaim the glories 
of war. 

We are at war because Germany has carried on a 
treacherous and insidious propaganda for genera- 
tions in preparing for war. This propaganda has 
until recently been little understood by the rest of 
the world and we have had only a faint glimmering 
notion of what has been going on. German spies 
have been placed everywhere. German business has 
been a means of propaganda ^ and preparation for 
conquest, and now we can see that the educational 
work fostered by Germany has been another one of 
the agencies of propaganda. As I am describing 
only what I myself have learned from personal ob- 



Why We Are at War 35 

servation and conversation, I give merely two illus- 
trations of German educational propaganda. In- 
terested in the education of my children, I inquired 
about an opportunity for boys to learn German in 
France, and heard of a family living in Versailles 
to which German boys were frequently sent. As 
I now review all the circumstances I have little doubt 
that this family formed a connection for German 
propaganda and was probably a part of the detest- 
able spy system of Germany. I found, moreover, 
during my inquiries that Germany had seen to it 
that there should be a school in Brussels where good 
instruction was given in German in the German lan- 
guage, so that a child could go there and keep up 
his German and at the same time learn French. I 
have a clear impression, although it is not sup- 
ported by official documents that I have seen, that 
direct pecuniary aid was given to support German 
instruction in Brussels, and that this was a part 
of the plan for the wickedness of 1914. And re- 
cent revelations show that the German imperial 
budget contained a very considerable item for in- 
struction in German in foreign lands, quite confirm- 
ing the impressions gathered from personal experi- 
ences. 



CHAPTER III 

THE FOECES OF DARKNESS GAIN THE UPPER HAND 

One evidence of the great change that has taken 
place in Germany is the neglect of international law 
in recent years. The influences represented by 
Bluntschli and his code have now become very weak. 
A widespread and a sincere cultivation of interna- 
tional law implies a recognition of mutual rights 
and obligations among nations. The conception the 
Germans have had of themselves as a chosen people 
designed for world rulership has resulted in a dis- 
taste for international law rather than a love of this 
subject and its cultivation as a great branch of 
political science.^ 

The Germans exploit foreigners as they have op- 
portunity, at home as well as abroad. This is a 
broad general statement which is true in spite of 
numerous exceptions. All sorts of protestations 
of friendly feelings toward Americans were frequent 
enough before 1914, but anyone familiar with the 
real disposition of the German people knows very 
well that Americans have never been popular in 
Germany ; that, on the contrary, they have been held 
in more or less contempt, and that their presence 

36 



The Forces of Darkness Gain the Upper Hand 37 

lias been sought for the sake of gain. There are dif- 
ferent scales of prices in Germany and always espe- 
cially high ones for Americans; but the exploita- 
tion of the foreigner is also felt in other ways, 
particularly in the matter of learning the German 
language. Everywhere in Germany the Germans 
have sought to learn English from the Americans, 
and it has been with difficulty that the Americans 
have found an opportunity to speak German after 
going to Germany to learn the -language. Protests 
avail little. The Germans disregard the desire of 
the foreigner and generally come back to his exploi- 
tation in this matter of language. The American 
who went to a German family with the expressed un- 
derstanding that German was to be spoken found 
again and again that all agreements to the con- 
trary notwithstanding, the members of the family 
insisted upon speaking English, and that he was 
exploited. The last time I was in Germany I wrote 
a letter to the Munchener Neueste Nachrichten pro- 
testing against this practice. I pointed out that it 
was not fair, and that it would be to the advantage 
commercially of a city like Munich to give the 
Americans a square deal and a fair chance to learn 
the German language. The German newspaper to 
which the letter was sent never printed it and never 
made any reply. 

This exploitation of the foreigner and this de- 
sire to get the most out of him is something with 



38 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

which all travellers are familiar, and of which they 
could give many illustrations. I give two instances 
out of my own experience. Once in Germany while 
still a student, as I was walking along the highway, I 
was overtaken by a man driving a team. There were 
empty seats in the wagon and he asked me if I did 
not want a ride. He was a servant attached to the 
hotel where I was staying, and I felt delighted be- 
cause I thought that for once a simple kindness had 
been shown to me from a German merely because I 
was a human being. It was such a thing as we take 
as a mere matter of course in our country. Alas, 
my disappointment ! When my bill was handed in at 
the close of my stay at the hotel a charge of three 
marks was put down because I had ridden in the 
wagon with a servant of the hotel. There was in- 
volved, to be sure, more than the exploitation of 
the foreigner, for a class distinction entered. It 
was not fitting that a young doctor of philosophy 
should receive a friendly attention from a mere 
servant, for that act of fraternity would have been 
too democratic. Probably a young German doctor 
of philosophy would have given a tip of one sixth 
of the bill handed the American and that would have 
ended the matter. I did not mind so much the money 
that I paid as I did the disappointment. 

In 1913 when I was again in Germany and was 
studying the land problem, I desired to make a trip 
to the Bavarian Mountains to visit some farms and 



The Forces of Darkness Gain the Upper Hand 39 

to become acquainted with conditions. A German 
whom I knew recommended to me a friend of his, a 
young lawyer, who would be glad to go with me. 
This young lawyer had been brought up in the part 
of the country we proposed to visit and he had rela- 
tives still living there. I naturally paid all ex- 
penses. Imagine my surprise when a very substan- 
tial bill was sent to me for services, as nothing had 
been said about any charge and as I took it as a 
mere act of kindness from one who in this case was 
presumably a social equal. Shortly after when in 
England I was shown the allotments and small hold- 
ings near Oxford by a young English student who 
was glad to go with me and who would have felt 
very much grieved if I had offered him payment 
for his companionship. 

Coupled with this dislike and exploitation of the 
foreigner, goes the astounding inability of the Ger- 
mans to understand the psychology of other na- 
tions. Cruelty and oppression attend all their ef- 
forts at colonial expansion. The civilized world 
now knows that Germans should never rule non- 
Germans and that to turn back to Germany her lost 
colonies would be a crime, a sin crying to high heaven. 
Is it not enough that she has handed over to those 
blood-thirsty butchers, the Turks, new regions of 
Armenia for renewed slaughter of helpless Armenian 
men and women, young and old, even babes? 

Another illustration of the change which has come 



40 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

over Germany and wliich lias found its culmination 
in the unprovoked attack upon the world peace is 
found in the position occupied in 1913 by Brentano, 
professor of economics in the University of Munich. 
I mention 1913 because I was in Munich at that time 
and saw Brentano rather frequently and had in- 
timate conversation with him. Brentano in a sense 
was the last of the old guard. He was a tighter for 
liberty and desired a greater measure of freedom 
in international trade than Germany enjoyed. 
Brentano was also democratic in sentiment and an 
advocate of workingmen's rights. He had been in 
England and was not without admiration for Eng- 
lish institutions. He used to tell me when I ex- 
pressed admiration for Germany that I did not un- 
derstand the real situation, and he emphasized par- 
ticularly the fact that the old ideals of academic 
freedom were waning and were no longer in control 
in German Universities. He himself was attacked 
again and again and grossly slandered by representa- 
tives of merchants and manufacturers. Again and 
again he was obliged to protect himself and his good 
name by cases before the courts. While he won 
these cases, they were a great burden. I remember 
also his telling me that one of the young women of 
his family, a cousin or niece, had married a son of 
the great industrial magnate. Baron von Stumm. 
After her marriage she was told that she must ab- 
solutely cease all intercourse with the Brentanos. 



The Forces of Darkness Gain the Upper Hand 41 

It was either in 1911 or 1913 that I heard Maximil- 
ian Harden lecture in Munich. The lecture was 
given in a large hall opposite one of the most fashion- 
able hotels of the city. All of the seats were taken 
and some had to stand. The audience consisted of 
fashionably dressed people, apparently representing 
the culture and wealth of Munich. The whole lecture 
was virtually a plea for war. The German govern- 
ment, including the Kaiser, was abused for keeping 
the German nation from fighting England. Had 
Harden been speaking for workingmen and given 
utterance to such sentiments as he then expressed in 
regard to the Kaiser, he might have been arrested 
and punished for Majestdts heleidigung. But as he 
was speaking for war and apparently representing 
the sentiments of the leaders of opinion, he was let 
alone. He reproached his fellow-country-men for 
being so supine. He expressed the idea that the 
Germans were willing to take whatever treatment 
was handed out to them by England and when she 
struck one cheek they turned the other. Every war- 
like sentiment was applauded warmly by the audi- 
ence. It was apparent that he voiced their opinion 
in his plea for war: There is no doubt about the 
sentiments of his audience.^ ^ 

My experience after I returned once from Eng- 
land to Germany throws light upon German inten- 
tions and aims. I told my German friends that it 
was a great mistake to think of England as decadent, 



42 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

that as a matter of fact she was strong and virile 
and impressed me as unconquerable. I spoke also 
about my impression of the tremendous strength of 
Germany, and then I ventured to commend the plan 
of the father of the present Emperor, namely, the 
Emperor Frederick III, ^'the Noble," for a triple 
alliance of Germany, England and the United States. 
Such a combination, I said, could keep the peace of 
the world. The idea, however, of keeping the peace 
of the world was not well received and after I had 
mentioned it once or twice, I desisted. It was very 
evident that my German friends did not want the 
peace of the world kept, but they desired war and 
conquest. They took the position that they had come 
late into the world as a separate nation and did 
not have their share of the earth's surface, and that 
they must gain it by the ''good German sword," ^ ^ 
the phrase they use with exultation. 

I might mention other evidences of the prepara- 
tion for war. They were abundant for those who 
could understand what was going on. The heaping 
up of gold in the banks in 1913 was one evidence. 
I did my modest banking business at the Munich 
Branch of the great Deutsche Bank. It was diffi- 
cult to get even the small amount of gold that I 
wanted. Paper was forced upon the customers, and 
after a small amount of gold had been paid out, 
it was said that they did not have any more. 



The Forces of Darkness Gain the Upper Hand 43 

After the War broke out in 1914 I received a 
pamphlet written by Karl Eathgen, of the Kolonial- 
Institut, of Hamburg. Professor Rathgen is a very 
amiable, mild-mannered man, and yet in this pam- 
phlet he used these words, '^War is glorious, even 
if we lose, war is glorious; but if we win, war is 
unspeakably glorious." I know nothing which has 
impressed me more strongly than this utterance of 
Rathgen. When a man like Eathgen can glory in 
war, it shows how the gospel of war has entered 
into the very life blood of the German nation. It 
is a part of their false religion and a part of their 
worship of their false tribal god.^ 

What the Germans want is woirld empire.'^ I 
recall in this connection something that I heard from 
Professor Bluntschli of Heidelberg, and which, so 
far as I know, has never appeared in print. The 
Emperor Frederick III, then Crown Prince, was 
working with others on a design for a crown for the 
German Emperor. The sketch made by the Crown 
Prince Frederick had Eoman emblems which clearly 
suggested the succession to the world-throne of the 
Caesars. I remember the smile of Professor Blunts- 
chli as he told us about this sketch. He made no 
comment and none was necessary. There can be no 
doubt that the present Emperor has often thought 
of himself as crowned at Eome, Emperor of the 
world, successor of the Caesars and of Charlemagne.^ 



44 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

He desires ardently peace, but it is a new Pax 
Romana imposed upon the world by the German 
Emperor of the world. And note, Kaiser is simply 
the German word for CsBsar ! 



CHAPTER IV 

THE CHAKACTEEISTICS OF A GERMAN WORLD STATE 

If Germany conquered the world, what kind of a 
world would we have? Germany has conquered 
parts of the world, and we know something about the 
lot of the conquered in these regions. More than one 
hundred years ago the conquest of Poland was com- 
pleted, and parts of Poland have remained for more 
than a century under the dominion of the King of 
Prussia. The Poles are still unreconciled and ir- 
reconcilable. The treatment the Poles have long 
received and are still receiving throws light upon 
German methods in Belgium. The aim now is to 
secure peace in Prussian Poland by dispossessing 
the Poles and replacing them with Germans. This 
is part of the policy of the much vaunted Prussian 
land reform which has been described to us as ^'en- 
lightened German land policies. " Against their will 
the Polish land owners are bought out, and dis- 
possessed of their ancestral homes and the land is 
sold under favorable conditions to German colonists. 
It is considered next to a crime if a German sells 
land in Prussian Poland to a Pole ; it is regarded as 

45 



46 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

a proper cause for dismissal from the public service 
if such a thing is done by one in that service.^ 

The same policy is pursued in the northern part of 
Schleswig-Holstein which was conquered from Den- 
mark in 1864. Harsh, indeed, has been the Prussian 
rule in that part of Denmark which was annexed to 
Prussia, and the Danes to this day do not appreciate 
their privilege in being under the Prussian yoke. 

Alsace-Lorraine was wrested from France nearly 
fifty years ago. A policy of dispossession has gone 
on there as it has in Prussian Poland and, as it is 
now taking place in Belgium. The French have been 
crowded out by Germans, and many of the original 
French inhabitants long ago left their ancestral 
homes, no longer able to endure German ruthless- 
ness. Even yet, however, Alsace-Lorraine groans 
unhappily under the iron heel of the conqueror.^ 

I have just spoken about the brutal treatment of 
foreign nationalities within the German Empire. 
To understand fully, however, the attitude of Ger- 
many towards other countries and her plans for 
world domination it is well to consider her penetra- 
tion into Eussia long before this War and the plans 
which she made there as well as elsewhere in the 
world for the world-war, in which we are now en- 
gaged. In 1879 I was a student in Germany, and 
there, as also in Switzerland, I met many Eussians — 
some of them students and some of them older men. 
I found that the Eussians uniformly hated the Ger- 



The Characteristics of a German World State 47 

mans. This hatred was so intense that in an article 
which I wrote for the New York Evening Post and 
which appeared on November 1, 1879, I predicted 
that war was inevitable between Eussia and Ger- 
many. I based this prediction not upon the efforts 
of the governments to bring about war, but upon 
what I had learned about the oppression of Eussia by 
the Germans. The German landowner had planted 
himself in Eussia and was harsh and overbearing. 
The German capitalist already was at work in Eus- 
sia, preparing the ground for the domination of 
German capitalism. The German bureaucrat had 
control of the government in Petrograd. The Ger- 
mans were even then in the saddle, having large con- 
trol, and this they used to keep down the Eussian 
people. In 1918 my colleague, Professor E. A. Eoss, 
travelling in Eussia, was told by the German Luth- 
eran pastors that the Eussians were not fit for self- 
government ; that they were intellectually an inferior 
people, and that it might take two or three centuries 
for them to reach a point where they would be cap- 
able of self-government.^^ Precisely this speech was 
heard in the period to which my New York Evening 
Post article belongs. But in predicting a war, I 
made one serious mistake, and that is, I thought it 
would come a great deal sooner than it did. I pre- 
dicted, however, that the war could not take place 
while the two old emperors, William the First, of 
Germany, and the Czar^ Al^^^ander the Second, of 



48 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

Eussia, were living, on account of their friendship 
and relationship. Although I believe I discerned one 
of the fundamental causes of the present war, which 
as predicted is shaking Europe to its foundations, it 
did not occur to me then that it would shake the whole 
world to its foundations. 

I quote as follows from the article in the New York 
Evening Post (November 1, 1879) : 

^^The essence of the whole matter is this: The 
Kussians long for constitutional liberties, and they 
believe that the Germans are instrumental in caus- 
ing a continuance of the present autocracy. The 
Czar's mother was a German, a sister of the Ger- 
man Emperor, making him, as is well-kno^m, the 
nephew of the latter; his wife is also a daughter of 
Louis II of Hessen. His sympathies are all German, 
and lead him to pass considerable time in Germany 
and surround himself in St. Petersburg with Ger- 
mans. These favorites whose positions depend 
alone upon the Czar's will, would lofee all importance 
if the Russian people had a voice in the govern- 
ment. They feel this, and do all in their power to 
prevent it, flattering the Czar and preaching inces- 
santly the old doctrine of the ^unripeness' of the 
Eussian people for free institutions. ^The Eus- 
sians,' explained a Eussian gentleman in Geneva 
to me, ' are ruled over by a set of German foreigners, 
whose only interest in the country is in what they can 
make out of it. They fill the offices, rob the people 



The Characteristics of a German World State 49 

of their earnings, oppress them, preach continually 
the ignorance and inability of the Eussians, and 
prevent in every way the Czar from becoming ac- 
quainted with his people and learning their noble 
and excellent qualities. The Czar himself is in real- 
ity a foreign ruler ; he is German in sympathies and 
taste as well as in blood. ' We have in this explana- 
tion, which, whether correct or not, is believed by 
the Eussians, the true interpretation of their hatred 
of the Germans. . . . 

^^The feeling of the mass of Eussians is not a mat- 
ter of doubt. Even the Frankfurter Zeitung ad- 
mits that the Eussian journals express only the senti- 
ments of 'their readers, and the Kolnische Zeitung 
asserts that the prospect of peace stands in an in- 
verse ratio to the weight of the voice of the Eussian 
people. 

^'What will be the result of this agitation of the 
'German-haters'? It is ultimately bound to direct 
the policy of the government. . . . With this feeling 
on the part of the Eussians, a growth of years, the 
question of war with Germany is only one of time. 
Even now speculation is rife in regard to the way 
the different powers will range themselves in what 
it is supposed will be a general European war. The 
personal friendship existing between William I of 
Germany and his nephew may possibly keep the na- 
tions at peace until the death of these two aged 
monarchs. Then, at the farthest, the two people 



50 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

will come together with a crash which will shake 
Europe to its foundations.'^ 

Let us direct our attention to some contrasts. 
Less than twenty years ago England conquered 
South Africa, but in this war a South African Boer 
General has been the leader in wresting from Ger- 
many her African possessions. Germany in 1914 
little understood the ties binding together the dif- 
ferent countries forming the wonderful British Em- 
pire. It was said to people in New Zealand and 
elsewhere, ^^Now is your chance to escape, '^ but 
happily they did not desire to escape, but were eager 
to fight for what they truly conceived to be the com- 
mon cause of civilization. At the very outset, New 
Zealand, fortunately having had universal military 
service, was ready for the War; it may be doubted 
if greater loyalty and readiness to fight were shown 
in England than in New Zealand. 

In 1914 I took a journey from Vancouver to New 
Zealand and Australia. In Wellington, New Zea- 
land, I had an interview with the Prime Minister, 
Mr. Massey. While waiting in the ante-room for 
my turn, three Maori chiefs came out of Mr. Mas- 
sey 's office, their faces wreathed with smiles. They 
had previously been told that they could not enter 
the War with England and they were greatly grieved. 
They were delighted because they were then told 
they could make common cause with the British 
Empire, and they were very happy. What a con- 



The Characteristics of a German World State 51 

trast between the Maori in New Zealand and the 
Samoans in German Samoa! German Samoa, as 
it will be recalled, was conquered early in the War 
by New Zealand. On the return trip we stopped 
at American Samoa, where I may remark, first of 
all, that I was deeply impressed by the warm af- 
fection shown by the American Samoans to the 
American Government and to the naval commander 
and governor who was just leaving his post. Their 
demonstrations of affection were very touching, and 
I was told that when the Princeton went down in 
the harbor, Samoan chiefs wept as if Uncle Sam 
were a real living personal friend and had suffered 
a great loss, two Americans got on board at Samoa 
who had been spending some time in German Samoa. 
One of them told me that the Samoans were full of 
joy when Samoa was conquered by New Zealand, 
and they were able to get out from under the harsh 
German rule. The Americans, however, made it 
their business to go about among the Samoans and 
tell them that German Samoa might be reconquered 
before the end of the War and warned them to 
make no demonstrations, but to go quietly about 
their work so that in case the Germans should re- 
turn there would be no excuse for punishing them. 
We did not then understand German f rightfulness as 
well as we do now, but these Americans even at that 
time had an appreciation of the fate which might 
befall the Samoans should Germany come back. 



52 The World War a7id Leadership in a Democracy 

They did the right thing in warning them not to let 
the Germans know how happy they were to escape 
from their harsh control. 

Do we want to fare like Prussian Poland and Al- 
sace-Lorraine? If we do not want to be helots, we 
should tight to the bitter end. The world is not 
safe until Germany is conquered. It is only con- 
quest that can cure the German people of the malady 
which afflicts them and from which the whole world 
is suffering. There is nothing for America and her 
Allies to do save to dictate the terms of peace in 
Berlin. 

But how needless this War from the point of view 
of Germany, provided only she desired economic 
prosperity and room for economic expansion! The 
whole world was before her. No one stood in her 
way, although she was pursuing narrowly national- 
istic methods of aggrandizement. Without conflict 
of arms Germany was steadily gaining ground in all 
parts of the world. There was wonderful peace, 
wonderful prosperity at home. People were well 
clothed, safely sheltered in sanitary homes under 
wholesome conditions, except with some overcrowd- 
ing to be sure in the great centers, and they were 
fairly well fed. Even socialists had to admit in- 
creasing prosperity at home. There was relatively 
slight unemployment, and in a city like Munich such 
abundant provision to take care of all needing work 
and charitable relief that there was little suffering 



The Characteristics of a German World State 53 

of an economic character. Vocational education was 
training the youth of the land towards still greater 
prosperity. German commerce and industry were 
invading all lands and nowhere encountered seri- 
ous barriers. German ships were found on all seas 
and in English waters as well as in the waters 
of all of the countries of the world they came and 
went freely. 

But the envious masters of Germany were not 
satisfied. The lust for dominion and world conquest 
called a sudden halt to the greatest prosperity Ger- 
many had ever known, and possibly to the most 
rapidly increasing prosperity the world has prob- 
ably ever seen. The Kaiser and his military asso- 
ciates in 1914 plunged Germany and the world into 
an abyss of calamity as a result of their worship of 
their false tribal god. They longed, as they still 
do, for the glory of war, and they talked, as they 
still talk, with exultation of the work of the ^'good 
German sword" and like butchers gloating in butch- 
ery they prate about sharpening the German sword.^ 
To them war is still glorious. Perhaps they would 
not now say with Eathgen, ''War is glorious, even 
if we lose,'" but doubtless they still shout ''if we win 
war is glorious; but if we win, war is unspeakably 
glorious. " ^ 



CHAPTER V 

THE SOURCES OF THE GERMAN STRENGTH 

We are at war with the mightiest military nation 
the world has ever known. What are the sources of 
her strength? Military preparation for war obvi- 
ously suggests itself as one of the prime sources of 
her strength. The German army before the War 
was the most perfect piece of human organization 
and mechanism the world has ever seen. Even to 
the layman nothing could be more impressive than 
to see the German military maneuvers. As a stu- 
dent I remember seeing the maneuvers in Berlin on 
the Tempelhofer Feld in 1879 or 80. As I recall 
it, there were some forty to fifty thousand troops 
gathered together. The old Emperor, William the 
First, his son Frederick, Crown Prince, and the lat- 
ter 's son now William the Second were all present. 
The perfection of movement, ^^the shining armor," 
and the whole display filled me with awe and admira- 
tion. Probably the spectacle could not have been 
equalled anywhere in the world. This German army 
is the result of German thoroughness, German dili- 
gence, and German leadership. 
It is well for the world and particularly for the 

54 



The Sources of the German Strength 55 

United States to understand the hard work of offi- 
cers and men in the German army; nor should we 
fail to admire the sense of duty which keeps them 
at this drill, drill, drill in every nook and corner 
of Germany ; even if this sense of duty is narrow and 
has towards other nations perverted aims. Year in, 
year out, in heat and in cold, in fair weather and 
in foul, the tramp, tramp, tramp of the soldiers, 
infantry and cavalry, is heard. And work of the 
mind goes with the work of the body and the passage 
of well-nigh fifty years of peace saw no slackening 
of toil, no letting up in military sternness. The 
world has never seen the like.^ Let us take to heart 
this lesson, and be equally faithful in our prepara- 
tions for the works of war and peace, equally watch- 
ful for our liberties, equally quickened by a stern 
sense of duty in all our public activities, both civic 
and military; for today it is just as true as it was 
when the words were first uttered: ^^ Eternal vigi- 
lance is the price of liberty." 

But the military preparedness of Germany was 
only one part of her preparedness. This was 
strongly impressed upon me when a student in Ger- 
many. One saw preparedness at every turn. It 
came out very strongly in the discussions for the pur- 
chase of the Prussian railways by the state of Prus- 
sia in the years 1879-1880. This discussion I fol- 
lowed with care at the request of the Honorable An- 
drew D. White, then American Minister, who gave 



56 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

me the opportunity to make a report on it for our 
Department of State. The plans which had been 
formulated aimed to bring the railways into the 
closest harmony with the organization of the army 
and at the same time to promote in every possible 
way German economic development and to further 
German commerce with foreign nations. I called at- 
tention in my report to Bismarck's idea that the 
German troops should march into one end of the 
station as civilians and ride out the other end of 
the station in their uniforms ready for war. Prac- 
tically this very thing was seen in 1914, and a lady 
who was in Hamburg at the time tells me how im- 
pressive it was. 

The German army officers are a select body of 
highly trained men. This is not necessarily an evil 
in German life; it is an evil that they should be 
given such complete ascendancy over all other eco- 
nomic classes and professions.^ Nevertheless, the 
German civil official, the Beamte, is also well con- 
sidered in Germany. He is carefully selected, highly 
trained and occupies an honored position, even if 
not quite like the position of the Oifizier. How- 
ever, the Offlziere and the Beamten must be men- 
tioned together as the two great pillars of the 
German State. 

The civil official, if he occupies any one of the 
higher posts, is a man with university training, who 
enters his career as a young man and who wins his 



The Sources of the German Strength 57 

way step by step. The civil official is the same kind 
of a man that we find in our universities. With 
our complex modern life it is only in this way that 
excellence of service can be secured. Men prepare 
for a career in the civil service just as they prepar^e 
for a career in the practice of medicine or in the 
Church. They are able to do this because they have 
security in their positions; otherwise it would be 
impossible. The services performed when the ad- 
ministrative side of government is highly developed 
are so specialized that the one who trains himself to 
perform them properly is not likely to find em- 
ployment in private life. Let us suppose that a 
man gives years of his life to the postal service and 
acquires a high degree of knowledge about postal 
arrangements in all countries and becomes a real 
expert, comparable with an expert in our best man- 
aged industries. He has only one em^ployer, namely, 
the government, and he cannot afford to prepare him- 
self adequately unless he has security during good 
behaviour and efficient service with a prospect of 
advancement in return for meritorious and excel- 
lent service ^ and finally a pension for retirement 
when he is incapacitated. 

This is not an exclusively German idea but one 
more fully carried out in Germany than elsewhere. 
It is to be noticed that the pension system is eco- 
nomical, as salaries are much lower than would be 
required if each one were obliged to insure himself. 



58 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

The pension provides support for time of inability 
to render service on account of age and for tlie fam- 
ily in case of death. 

We have then in Germany a highly organized, 
integrated society under trained leadership. The 
civil service is the best the world has ever seen. 
Leadership does not have very high pecuniary re- 
wards, salaries are barely sufficient to maintain life 
in accordance with accepted standards, and in the 
case of the army are even below this, so that an 
officer, unless he has money of his own, is obliged 
to marry a girl with money. But low salaries are 
supplemented by generous recognition of merit. 

Germany has not neglected the individual. She 
has trained him and developed his powers as a mem- 
ber of her highly organized integrated society. It 
is a mistake to suppose that attention is not given 
to the cultivation of initiative on the part of the 
individual. Emphasis is laid upon this in the army 
and elsewhere, but perhaps especially in the army. 
Nevertheless, the still greater emphasis is laid upon 
the whole, and the individual must bring his powers 
of initiative and action into harmony with others 
to produce united action. Always and everywhere 
leadership is emphasised and rewarded. This holds 
with regard to private life as well as with regard to 
public life. It holds with industry, as well as with 
education. 

The sovereigns of the German state are not as a 



The Sources of the German Strength 59 

rule especially gifted men. Some of them are prob- 
ably rather dull and slow of wit, but in so far as I 
have been able to observe, they are very generally 
on the lookout for excellence and glad to honor it. 

This system of recognition which goes through 
German life is wonderful. A man starts in a career 
as a small merchant. He enlarges his business, is 
solid, substantial, upright, is ready to serve his com- 
munity. In due course with pecuniary success comes 
also non-pecuniary recognition. One day a crown 
is seen over his door, and he is Hoflieferant. Let 
us suppose, as time goes on, that his business grows 
and he manufactures supplies for himself and others. 
In his special line he comes to play a considerable 
role in the commercial world; and he distinguishes 
himself, perhaps by generous contributions to hos- 
pitals and by building model homes for his working 
people. He may receive a higher title and be made 
Commerzienrath. This is a proud day for him 
and perhaps still prouder for his wife, who no longer 
plain Frau Schmidt or Frau Schulze, becomes 
Frau C ommerzienrath or Gnddige Frau. There are 
many other grades still higher, but with these we 
need not now concern ourselves. 

Let us contrast this condition with that which a 
few years ago in the heyday of the muckraker ob- 
tained in the United States, when success was penal- 
ized by suspicion and denunciation, and when on the 
part of not a few political aspirants for public favor 



60 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

bad motives were always imputed to explain the ac- 
tions of great business men even when good motives 
offered an equally logical explanation. No one 
would want to say that the muckraker was alto- 
gether uncalled for nor that big business as a whole 
was not guilty of many sins ; but suspicion and in- 
discriminate abuse do not bring desired reforms. 
Encouragement of excellence is pedagogically cor- 
rect. Wisely placed praise and generous recogni- 
tion call into play men's best powers. We have rea- 
son to be proud of our business men ; let us hold up 
their merits for emulation. 

In the German University there are also honors 
to be dispensed as a recognition of merit and these 
likewise encourage and strengthen the leadership 
of the learned. Herr Professor is something, but 
Herr Geheimrath is higher. Let us consider 
other and more fundamental conditions in a Ger- 
man university having like tendencies. First of all, 
notice that the German professor is appointed for 
life like a justice of the United States Supreme 
Court. His retirement cannot be forced, nor can 
he be dismissed without cause. He has a title to a 
position like his title to his house. This naturally 
makes the position a prized one and attracts talent 
to the service of the university. Mistakes may be 
and are made in appointments, but nevertheless, un- 
der this system, the state receives more for each 
dollar expended than it could under any other sys- 



The Sources of the German Strength 61 

tern. But one special feature to which it is now de- 
sired to direct attention is the celebration of the 
seventieth birthday for the man who has won any 
distinction in the service of the university. Prepa- 
ration for this celebration often begins two or three 
years before his seventieth birthday is reached. 
Former students plan a work to be issued as a part 
of the celebration of the seventieth birthday. The 
portrait of the man may be painted by some dis- 
tinguished artist, and when the seventieth birthday 
arrives, friends and neighbors unite to do honor to 
the man who has reached his three score and ten 
years. Those high in the state, perhaps even in- 
cluding the king (in a state like Bavaria) show ap- 
preciation. It is an event in the life of the com- 
munity as it is in the life of the individual. The 
celebration stimulates a man before he reaches his 
seventieth birthday, and it puts him in a psychical 
frame of mind and disposition to carry forward his 
work beyond what is called the allotted span of life. 
Very generally the German professor is active in 
his university work after his seventieth birthday. 
I recall an incident in Munich when I visited Pro- 
fessor von Meyer in his office in the University. 
The celebration of his birthday had occurred the 
year before. I had been given a picturesque de- 
scription of the celebration and saw in my mind's 
eye carriages driving up to his door leaving con- 
gratulations with flowers, etc. The face of the old 



62 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

man brightened when he told me about his celebra- 
tion, and as he showed me the two volumes, The 
History of Statistics in Germany, which had been 
prepared by his students and admirers as a part of 
the celebration, he said to me, ^^What a great 
thing it is when by the mere lapse of time a man can 
bring into existence such a work as this. ' ^ 

Unquestionably, there are all sorts of wealinesses 
in human nature revealed in the bestowal of titles 
and honors in Germany. It has its ludicrous side 
and lends itself at times to the cartoonist and the 
writers for humorous papers, but at bottom it is 
sound. It places before men other ideals than those 
of mere money-making. It gives other rewards than 
pecuniary rewards. It awakens talent and har- 
nesses it to the chariot of progress.* 

The world over we see that it is not mere numbers 
that count. If they did so, how great a role would 
Russia be playing to-day! Leadership is the great 
thing. The benefits of wise and good leadership 
are all-pervasive. A wise and great leader lifts his 
whole community and may lift an entire nation. We 
have had happily in our country wise and great lead- 
ers. Confining ourselves only to the past, we think 
of Washington and Lincoln. What a blessing they 
are to us all ! 

Leadership is the great word now. We have seen 
leadership in an autocracy. To this as a condition 
of a great and independent national life we must 



The Sources of the German Strength 63 

oppose leadership in a democracy. Leadership is 
a condition of winning the War. It is a condition 
of meeting" the stupendous problems which confront 
America now and will confront America in the new 
world which follows the War. If we would live in 
a world of American ideals instead of a world of 
Bolshevik ideals, we must cherish the ideal of leader- 
ship among" and for people closely knit and com- 
pacted together as a nation composed of strong, 
highly trained individuals with diversified gifts 
united into a society capable of acting together for 
the attainment of common ends. 

Eeviewing the ground thus far covered, it is clear 
that the outstanding feature of German life is leader- 
ship. Leadership in an autocracy has carried with 
it preparedness in all the social life-spheres in Ger- 
many, both civic and military life-spheres. This 
leadership has plunged the world into woe and 
threatens the civilization of all free democratic coun- 
tries. Now turning to the United States, we find a 
different situation. We are lacking where Germany 
is strongest; and in the following chapters atten- 
tion will be directed to a description of this actual 
situation with its weaknesses and its potentialities of 
betterment. There is in the American people suffi- 
cient intellectual and moral strength and will-power 
to produce the needed changes in our institutions and 
to produce that leadership which will overwhelm 
the autocratic leadership of Germany. Our popula- 



64 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

tion is greater, our amazing natural resources over- 
shadow the natural resources of Germany; and for 
conquest in the present War with the aid of our Al- 
lies and for future security with ever increasing 
prosperity in material and immaterial goods we 
only need that leadership which will gather together 
and unify us as a nation. We turn then to Ameri- 
can leadership. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY IIST 
AMERICAN HISTORY 

In the course of the history of our country many 
different social currents may be observed. The 
forces which have striven for ascendancy in the 
United States have not all been harmonious. Some- 
times they have been mutually antagonistic, and not 
always has it been clear at the moment what forces 
would gain social control. When, however, in the 
twentieth century we look back on our history to the 
time of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, we 
can see that on the whole the struggle for equality 
of opportunity has been dominant. This striving 
runs through our history like a red thread and gives 
it unity. 

It has not always been clear exactly what content 
should be given to the idea of equality of opportunity 
any more than it has been always obvious what 
means we should take to reach the desired goal. 
Certain clear outlines of this struggle for equality 
of opportunity are now becoming easily discernible. 

When we began our separate national history in 

65 



66 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

the latter part of the eighteenth century, a pretty 
well rounded-out social philosophy was dominant. 
It was the era of natural rights, and the philosophy 
is called the philosophy of natural rights. Nature 
ruled, it was held, in society, and she established cer- 
tain beneficent social laws. These acted in the in- 
terest of all, and for men there was nothing but to 
learn these laws and to obey them. Man's political 
activity was pernicious if it went beyond the main- 
tenance of law and order. Included also in this 
philosophy was the idea of the harmony of inter- 
ests. Each one, it was held, in pursuing his own in- 
terest promoted necessarily the interest of all. An- 
other marked feature of this philosophy was the 
doctrine of equality of men not merely in rights and 
aspirations but in powers. Equality as fact rather 
than as goal was the dominant thought of the lead- 
ers of eighteenth century America as well as of the 
leaders of France and England. These ideas found 
expression in the writings of men like Adam Smith, 
Blackstone, Turgot, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jeffer- 
son, and many others. The radical economic think- 
ers, like Eobert Owen, particularly emphasized them. 

Inequalities were held to be artificial. The chief 
activity of government, if confined within its proper 
limits, consisted in the removal of artificial inequali- 
ties, in order that natural equalities might assert 
themselves. 

We find one pronounced exception, however, to the 



The struggle for Equality of Opportunity 67 



idea of the passive policy of government and laissez- 
faire, in the educational policy of great leaders like 
Turgot and Jefferson. Both of these grand men 
sketched out schemes of education which perhaps we 
have not yet fully realized in all particulars. These 
men might have claimed that their educational poli- 
cies were after all in harmony with their general 
social philosophy because they thought that in or- 
der that men's naturally equal powers should be 
fully realized it was necessary that these powers 
should be developed by education, and that education 
was something that could not be provided individ- 
ually, but could be provided adequately only by the 
establishment of tax-supported public schools, in- 
cluding even the university as planned by Jefferson. 
To understand the role of leadership as it would 
naturally evolve from the eighteenth century philoso- 
phy we must also consider in our own country par- 
ticularly the kind of economic life which we find in 
the eighteenth century and early in the nineteenth 
century America. The life itself was a very simple 
one, being chiefly rural and agricultural. There 
were almost no banks, and this is significant for 
every bank means economic ties, and it is only as 
economic ties develop and as society becomes com- 
plex that banks multiply and flourish. Banking is 
then a good test of the complexity of economic so- 
ciety. The following figures in regard to the banks 
of the United States have then great significance. 



68 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

Number of Banks in the United States ^ 

1774 

1784 3 

1804 59 

1820 307 

1860 1,562 

1879 3,335 

1899 9,732 

1909 22,491 

1917 27,923 



The loan and trust companies and savings banks 
are included; these are mostly of comparatively re- 
cent origin. 

The affairs of government were very simple, and 
it was not unnatural that the man going from the 
plow to the highest political office should be a popular 
ideal. The idea was widely entertained that any 
citizen should be able to hold any office. Manu- 
factures at this time were insignificant as were great 
corporations. Manufactures mean in modern times 
great gatherings of men with the resulting social 
problems, including the conflict of labor and capital. 
Large corporations mean increasing social control 
as seen in our laws and institutions. The control 
is first found in a little legislation here and there — 
this legislation constantly growing until it terminates 
in powerful commissions, established to regulate and 
direct and control the operations of corporations and 
thus to control the use of a large proportion of all 



The Struggle for Equality of Opportunity 69 

of the wealth of the United States. We have our 
state railroad commissions, Interstate Commerce 
Commission and Federal Trade Commission, cited 
merely as illustrations of the movement. During 
this evolutionary process administration constantly 
grows in significance as contrasted with legislation. 

It is easily explicable that when our forefathers 
established this Republic they thought comparatively 
little about leadership, and that the constitutions 
adopted and the institutions established under these 
constitutions were not such as to lay emphasis upon 
leadership and to encourage its development as a 
great essential political necessity. 

An entire volume could be filled with an account 
of the way in which the struggle for equality of op- 
portunity has worked itself out in our history. 
Negative measures were first those chiefly insisted 
upon and made to prevail. Titles were abolished 
and hereditary offices, both being opposed to natural 
rights, as the doctrine of natural rights was held 
at the time. Equality of inheritance was also se- 
cured and the special privilege of birth-right, giv- 
ing to the oldest son a peculiar position in the in- 
heritance of property, was abolished. This was in 
Virginia one of the great achievements of Jeffer- 
son. Special privilege of any religious organiza- 
tion was also abolished, all religious organizations 
were made to stand on the same footing, and all 
were denied special public aid and assistance. 



70 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

The absence of labor legislation in our earliest his- 
tory and the small amount of labor legislation during 
the entire first half of our history are noticeable as 
also the too frequently hostile attitude of courts to- 
wards labor legislation as it gradually came into ex- 
istence. If all men are equal as fact, then legisla- 
tion passed on behalf of any economic class consti- 
tutes favoritism and class privilege. Each one is 
quite able to look out for himself if you give him a 
chance and do not interfere with his right to con- 
tract freely with others. 

Perhaps the most instructive of all is the attitude 
of abolitionists very generally towards negro slav- 
ery. The aim of the long struggle for emancipa- 
tion, as they conceived it, was to strike the shackles 
off the slaves. A widely prevailing view was that 
if those laws were abolished which established slav- 
ery, if the negroes were given the same political 
rights which the whites possessed, if they enjoyed 
the advantages of the same laws and if at the same 
time they were made to obey the same laws equally, 
the negro problem would be solved. I have heard 
it said by a woman acquainted with many of the 
leaders of the abolitionists and who was acquainted 
with the one who said it, that this leader felt that 
the social problem had been solved when slavery 
was abolished, and that there were no other great 
social questions pressing for solution in the United 
States. This was also the attitude of other leaders 



The Struggle for Equality of Opportunity 71 

as one will readily ascertain by reading the files of 
certain well-known periodicals during" the last three 
decades of the nineteenth century. It was under the 
influence of this thought that men talked about the 
^^ so-called labor question." Great leadership, still 
more, specially selected and highly trained leader- 
ship lacked appreciation as one of the foundations 
of national prosperity. 

The twentieth century reveals us still struggling 
for equality of opportunity, but this struggle is com- 
ing to be dominated by quite different controlling so- 
cial ideas, and these new social ideas give an en- 
tirely new significance to leadership. 

The progress of biological science in recent 
decades, particularly of the science of heredity, has 
given us new data concerning human faculties, and 
new views regarding the innate differences among 
men from which have been deduced a new social 
philosophy and a new outlook upon life. The great 
outstanding fact is that of inequality among men. 
We now know that men are born unequal in their 
powers, and that educational development and the 
experiences of life very generally increase rather 
than remove these inequalities. Two great words 
in our social philosophy are nature and nurture. 
Formerly we took nature as a constant, equally op- 
erating force among men and attributed indefinite 
and almost unlimited powers to nurture. 

Now we understand that nurture can develop only 



72 The ^¥orld War mid Leadership in a D^emocracy 

what nature lias implanted, and tliat tlie gifts of 
nature include different potentialities of develop- 
ment. If we take a group of school children, say at 
the age of ten, and test them in their mathematical 
powers, we find tremendous inequalities. If we give 
to all the best education possible for two years, we 
shall find that the differences among them have 
grown.^''' This is a very simple statement of facts, 
but the facts have most momentous consequences and 
lead to new ideas in regard to the nature and possi- 
bilities of human progress. If men are so unequal 
in their gifts, they cannot secure equality of oppor- 
tunity by equal treatment. The social situation is 
well summed up in these few words of the late Pro- 
fessor Anton Menger: ^' There is no greater in- 
equality than the equal treatment of unequals.'' A 
similar thought is found in Plato and doubtless in 
many other writers. Expanded and practically ap- 
plied it leads to radically different action from that 
which has resulted from eighteenth century ideas. 
The question is ; how shall we secure equality of op- 
portunity for men of unequal powers? 

When the facts of inequality are so obvious that 
they thrust themselves upon us at every turn, it is 
surprising that the philosophy of equality as fact 
could ever have gained such ascendancy as it has 
gained in the United States, and that in the twentieth 
century it should be only gradually making way 
for the philosophy of inequality as fact. We have 



The Struggle for Equality of Opportunity 73 

the ricliest diversity among men with respect to 
powers and talents, and one of the greatest social 
problems is to secure unity of underlying purpose 
and social harmony with diversity of specific 
functions. 

As men are so diverse in their capacities and have 
consequently different careers and destinies before 
them, there should be a corresponding diversity in 
our educational institutions. The old philosophy 
gave us a school system through which all must pass 
regardless of diversities in gifts and necessary varia- 
tions in careers. Not only must all take the same 
studies, but the gifted, mediocre and dull must be 
placed in the same classes, whereby all suffer loss, 
the inferior as well as the superior. On this subject 
let me quote at some length from a man, who 
perhaps stands as high as any man in the edu- 
cational history of the United States, President 
Emeritus Charles William Eliot, of Harvard Uni- 
versity. 

*^I found my sample grammar school very inter- 
esting from another point of view. It was not one 
of those unfortunate schools in which fifty-six pupils 
are assigned to one teacher. The number of pupils 
to a teacher was less than fifty-six, though still too 
large. Since there were pupils in that school of 
various nationalities, religions, and conditions in 
life, every set of pupils of the same grade assembled 
in one room contained a large variety of individuals 



74 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

of different powers and capacities ; yet tliey all had 
to be treated in precisely the same way, except as 
the ingenuity of the teacher might discover means of 
escape from this disastrous uniformity. There were 
children who could do the set tasks in arithmetic in 
fifteen minutes, and other children who could not do 
them in fifty-five minutes ; and there were all varie- 
ties between these limits. I suppose the worst fea- 
ture of the American school is this grouping to- 
gether of children whose capacities are widely dif- 
ferent. I am told that this evil is not so generally 
left without remedy in the Western schools as it is 
in the Eastern; but I have had no particular ob- 
servation of Western grammar schools. In my sam- 
ple grammar school there was no official, public, 
regulation remedy for this most serious condition of 
things. What was the unofficial private remedy 
provided by the ingenious teacher? Simply that 
when a bright pupil could get through in fifteen 
minutes what the programme allotted fifty minutes 
to, the teacher endeavored to give that child some- 
thing else to do — a book to read, other examples to 
solve, or pictures to look at; but she had so many 
children before her that she could not possibly deal 
with all of them in that way. This is the daily com- 
monplace evil which exists in every grammar school 
room, I suppose, in Massachusetts. What is the 
remedy? No remedy seems to be possible except 
grading by proficiency and capacity. I know that 



The Struggle for Equality of Opportunity 75 

this is a remedy which the average school committee 
dislikes. We cling very hard to the delusion that, 
after all, men and women may be pretty nearly equal. 
We are flying in the face of nature when we conduct 
our schools on such a theory. We must learn, on 
the contrary, that the only possible equality among 
men is equality before the law. If we are to have 
good schools, we must remember that children are 
individually very diverse, and that the community 
suffers much loss when the quick children are made 
to keep pace with the slow. Not only the children 
themselves sufPer loss, but the community to which 
they belong loses heavily and incessantly. We 
ought to seek a regulation remedy for this state of 
things, not leaving it to the good feeling and ingenu- 
ity of the individual teacher. Through this grading 
by proficiency quite as much good would be done to 
the slower pupils as to the quicker. There is noth- 
ing more depressing, and, on the whole, degrading, 
than a hopeless contest ; than the sense of remaining, 
day after day and year after year, a dunce, without 
expectation of promotion, and without gain in mental 
power. We must not imagine, therefore, that in at- 
tempting to further the interests of the superior chil- 
dren we should fail to further the interests of the in- 
ferior. We should do both these good things simul- 
taneously."^ 

And to what self-contradictions has not this idea 
of equality as fact led us ! If we find that some men 



76 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

have the situation, environment and gifts which 
would make them good blacksmiths, carpenters, and 
bakers and then we establish special schools and 
facilities to train them to achieve excellence in the 
kinds of work indicated, it is at once denounced as 
undemocratic. What does this mean except that the 
occupation of the carpenter, blacksmith and the 
baker are necessarily inferior and to be looked down 
upon socially? The true democratic idea is that 
these occupations are honorable and that the man 
who does his work well at any calling for which na- 
ture seems to have destined him and for which he 
has been especially trained has an honorable position 
in the community. Democracy means that the man 
who does his work honestly, thoroughly and effi- 
ciently as a farm laborer occupies an honorable posi- 
tion in the community and so do men who occupy all 
positions up and down the economic scale. We need 
farm labor. It is one of the great crying needs of 
the present time, but we have no special preparation 
to train men as farm laborers, to give them a good 
outlook upon life and to surround them with condi- 
tions of life attractive for them and promising for 
their children. Doubtless some mistaken zealots of 
democracy might consider it undemocratic to offer 
rewards for the best kept farm laborer 's cottage and 
grounds and rewards to land-owning farmers who 
should especially distinguish themselves in the solu- 
tion of the farm labor problem with respect to the 



The Struggle for Equality of Opportunity 11 

farm laborer, farm owner and society. Yet in a 
true democracy there must be some place offering 
possibilities of wholesome life for those on every 
rung" of the agricultural ladder, as well as of the 
economic ladder in general. 

Now what is the result of this falsely idealistic, 
Utopian and unrealistic interpretation of the con- 
crete agricultural situation?^ Instead of self-re- 
specting and respected farm laborers, occupying 
fitting positions in economic society, we have wander- 
ing, degraded, and demoralizing ^^ hoboes" furnish- 
ing a considerable proportion of the nearly always 
inadequate supply of farm labor. It is worth while 
at this point to quote at some length an objective 
realistic picture of farm labor as presented by Ham- 
lin Garland in his book, A Son of the Middle Border. 
Speaking of his father whose occupation had taken 
him away from the farm in June of one year, Gar- 
land says that his father returned at harvest time 
to take command of farm operations and then he 
describes the harvest laborers whose character made 
the return necessary. These are his words: ^^As 
harvest came on he took command in the field, for 
most of the harvest help that year were rough, hardy 
wanderers from the south, nomads who had followed 
the line of ripening wheat from Missouri northward, 
and were not the most profitable companions for 
boys of fifteen. They reached our neighborhood in 
July, arriving like a flight of alien unclean birds, and 



78 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

vanished into the north in September as mysteri- 
ously as they had appeared. A few of them had 
been soldiers, others were the errant sons of the 
poor farmers and rough mechanics of older states, 
migrating for the adventure of it. One of them gave 
his name as ^ Harry Lee,' others were known by 
such names as 'Big Ed' or 'Shorty.' Some carried 
valises, others had nothing but sm-all bundles contain- 
ing a clean shirt and a few socks. 

''They all had the most appalling yet darkly 
romantic conception of women. A 'girP was the 
most desired thing in the world, a prize to be worked 
for, sought for and enjoyed without remorse. She 
had no soul. The maid who yielded to temptation 
deserved no pity, no consideration, no aid. Her 
sufferings were amusing, her diseases a joke, her 
future of no account. From these men Burton and 
I acquired a desolating fund of information concern- 
ing South Clark Street in Chicago, and the river 
front in St. Louis. Their talk did not allure, it 
mostly shocked and horrified us. We had not known 
that such cruelty, such baseness was in the world 
and it stood away in such violent opposition to the 
teaching of our fathers and uncles that it did not 
corrupt us. That man, the stronger animal, owed 
chivalry and care to woman, had been deeply 
grounded in our concept of life, and we shrank from 
these vile stories as from something disloyal to our 
mothers and sisters. 



The Struggle for Equality of Opportunity 79 

'*To those who think of the farm as a sweetly ideal 
place in which to bring up a boy, all this may be dis- 
turbing — but the truth is, low-minded men are low- 
minded everywhere, and farm hands are often crea- 
tures with enormous appetites and small remorse, 
men on whom the beauty of nature has very little 
effect. 

*^To most of our harvest hands that year Satur- 
day night meant a visit to town and a drunken spree, 
and they did not hesitate to say so in the presence of 
Burton and myself. Some of them did not hesitate 
to say anything in our presence.'' ^ 

Let us direct our attention a moment to the word 
servant and the work of domestic service in the 
United States. The word servant carries with it 
in the public mind less that is desirable and more 
that is undesirable in our own country than in any 
other country. Does not this mean that we have 
got far away from the substance of real democracy! 
What a useful position does a good servant in a good 
household occupy ! In many circumstances servants 
are required to enable the household to perform its 
proper function in the community. There are times 
also in humble households when a servant is re- 
quired. If household servants had to disappear, it 
would mean a large increase in boarding houses, 
hotel life and flats and apartments. Why should 
it then, be regarded as undemocratic to have schools 
to train girls to be good household servants ? There 



80 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

are advantages and disadvantages in domestic serv- 
ice. Why should not an effort be made to increase 
the advantages and remove the disadvantages and 
to make this useful occupation honorable in the pub- 
lic estimation? Much has been done in old communi- 
ties and more can be done everywhere in this direc- 
tion. Prizes and public recognition can be given 
to those who serve long and faithfully, and they can 
be held up as worthy of esteem. It is highly de- 
sirable to exempt from taxation bequests left by 
employers to household servants. There are in the 
world millions of persons who would be benefited by 
being brought into such a relationship under right 
conditions. We have not yet got to the place in the 
world's history where there is not something touch- 
ing and appealing in the relationship of reciprocal 
affection binding together the old household servant 
and the family in which she has served. 

But let us look at this problem of the servant in 
the home from yet another angle. There is a rising 
science of domestic economy. There are beautiful 
opportunities for art in this most intimate personal 
relation. An education in hygiene and practical 
nursing might well be provided. The terms of serv- 
ice, and the reciprocal rights might be defined and 
grouped into a variety of standards practical for 
different conditions. That these things are not done 
is a sign that our enterprise is paralyzed by the 
idea that there is such a thing as a great class of 



The Struggle for Equality of Opportunity 81 

useful work wliicli is beneath the dignity of a free- 
born citizen to endeavor to do efficiently. 

We have already secured a great body of labor 
legislation based upon implicit if not explicit recog- 
nition of unequal powers of the different economic 
classes in the community. Gradually our courts are 
coming to recognize actual inequalities of economic 
power and resources and are thus helping to solve 
the problem of equal opportunity for men with un- 
equal powers. This means a new point of view for 
legislation and judicial action. Very reluctantly 
have our legislators come to a realistic interpreta- 
tion of the actual economic situation and shown 
themselves ready to pass necessary progressive leg- 
islation. Still more reluctantly have our courts 
come to recognize the situation to which this new 
legislation responds. 

The social philosophy of the twentieth century 
places a heavy responsibility upon those who have 
superior natural gifts and opportunities. The idea 
of stewardship has perhaps in some quarters been 
popular just in proportion as it has been vague and 
indefinite and supposed to have a religious sanction 
only, — something applicable on Sundays and in 
spheres remote from the farm, workshop and marts 
of trade. It is seen now, however, that it has the 
strongest social sanction. It is not a matter of merit 
that one has inherited gifts from his ancestors any 
more than it is a matter of merit to a man that he has 



82 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

inherited $1,000,000. Both alike impose upon the 
fortunate recipient of gifts duties to his fellows less 
favored. 

And coming back to our central theme, leadership 
becomes essential in a prosperous and progressive 
society, particularly when this society is one which 
on account of the intricacy and complexity of all 
economic and social relationships faces problems of 
life and death and of such difficulty as to tax all our 
best mental and spiritual resources. 

Reflect for a moment on these problems. First 
and chief among them is winning the War. This 
means, as we now know, the massing and unifica- 
tion of all our spiritual powers for this supreme pur- 
pose. We have then involved in winning the War all 
the economic tasks of the pre- War period, but they 
are intensified and magnified. And proposals which 
^YQ short years ago seemed Utopian have become 
practical politics. Great industries, including the 
railways, are already operated by the government 
and a control is exercised over our food that would 
before the War have been regarded as impossible. 

In 1910 the various political units of our coun- 
try, that is national, state and local, expended 
something like one-tenth of all the wealth produced 
— in other words, that proportion of our wealth 
was spent by social agencies and our return con- 
sisted in services secured. Now probably at least 
a fourth of all our income is expended by govern- 



The Struggle for Equality of Opportunity 83 

mental agencies, and while after the War public 
expenditures will decrease, they will never go back 
to the old figures. What does this signify! It sig- 
nifies, first, that our welfare depends on the wis- 
dom with which these vast sums are expended; sec- 
ond, it signifies direction given to our activities; 
and, third, it signifies a powerful influence upon the 
distribution of wealth and incomes as between eco- 
nomic groups and classes, as well as geographical 
sections of the country. Are not the tasks involved 
fairly staggering, as one thinks of all the potentiali- 
ties for good and evil involved? Then we have be- 
fore us the permanent public ownership and opera- 
tions of vast monopolistic enterprises as present de- 
batable propositions, all leading up to other pro- 
posals of socialism. The more strongly we advocate 
extended functions of government or believe a vast 
extension inevitable, the more sharply must we in- 
sist on sound leadership and a broad scope for sound 
leadership. Looking at this situation from a some- 
what different angle, it may be said, that radical 
economic policies can be successful only when ac- 
companied by conservatism in politics. Yet this 
requires explanation to avoid misunderstanding. 
Political measures for a country with rapidly ex- 
panding economic functions must be carefully con- 
sidered, the administrative organization of the coun- 
try must be highly elaborate and must be operated 
by strong, capable and specially trained men. 



84 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

Are we not then prepared to accept this general- 
ization: The problem of leadership, at the same 
time the chief problem of our American democracy 
is this, — to secure the services of the feiv having val- 
uable superiorities in behalf of the many with more 
modest gifts. 

This is not the whole problem of democracy, for 
the processes of democracy include many other prob- 
lems; it is simply asserted that it is just now the 
most pressing problem, and it cannot be solved with- 
out carrying with it the solution of our other urgent 
problems of democracy. "When we emphasize lead- 
ership, we do not imply a neglect of the masses ; quite 
the contrary. Leadership does not stand out as 
an isolated social phenomenon, but it has its roots in 
a sound and thriving society. The tragedy of Rus- 
sia is due to isolated and unworthy leadership and in 
the time of storm and stress, Russia fell with a great 
crash, she crumbled into pieces. For all time, the 
Czars of Russia must face this awful verdict of his- 
tory : ' ' Weighed in the balance and found wanting. ' ' 

The struggle for equality of opportunity as we 
have defined it means opportunity for all in propor- 
tion to their capacity. If the men of lower grades of 
intelligence and the ranks of mediocrity have full op- 
portunity and the highly gifted do not have oppor- 
tunity in proportion to their faculties, we do not have 
equality of opportunity in any real sense. Society 
is deprived of that which is peculiarly precious, the 



The Struggle for Equality of Opportunity 85 

fullest possible social contribution of talent and 
genius. 

To bring out the situation in America clearly, it 
may be well to contrast some features of the life of 
England, Germany, and the United States. England 
values talent and rewards magnificently generous 
achievement. No other country perhaps has ever 
excelled England in recognition, both social and 
pecuniary, of distinguished service in the great fields 
of human activity. A recent writer uses these 
words: ^^I do not know that it is any special merit 
in England to be an island, but I do know that there 
is special merit attached to the nature of the Eng- 
lish in their ability not only to produce, but to pitch 
upon leaders of men.'' ^ 

What shall we say of the opportunities afforded 
in England to the great mass of men? England has 
always been generous so far as private benevolence 
is concerned, but she has never provided education 
at public expense to make broad the way to success. 
The educational system of England is particularly 
weak so far as educational opportunity for all is con- 
cerned. It has exhibited the hit-and-miss of private 
effort, and there have been latent gifts in all ranks 
which for lack of opportunity have gone unculti- 
vated. The English laissez-faire system has been 
particularly to blame, with the result that private 
generosity has not been matched by large public 
taxation for education to establish ladders reaching 



86 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

from the lowest to the highest social and economic 
strata. The sentiment in England has not been 
democratic. Birth has been appreciated to the full, 
but the wide distribution of gifts and the potentiali- 
ties of the average man have not been understood. 
Great improvement has taken place, but England 
is still far behind Germany and the United States in 
the provision at public expense of educational op- 
portunities. 

On the other hand, one merit of the English aristo- 
cratic system is that only one son inherits the title 
and rank of nobility, and the others are commoners. 
This has prevented that sharp separation between 
classes which exists where all the children inherit 
noble rank. 

When we turn to Germany we find in her educa- 
tional institutions many apparent inconsistencies. 
Germany has never been a land of laissez-faire but 
a land in which public activity has been favored. 
The educational system has from top to bottom been 
a tax-supported system, and the German people are 
very much inclined to look askance upon educational 
institutions that are purely private, although such 
institutions exist. It is doubtful if a university in 
Germany with the independence of public control 
that we find in the case of Yale, Harvard, and Colum- 
bia would be tolerated because of the keen apprecia- 
tion in that country of the broad social significance 
of a real university. 



The Struggle for Equality of Opportunity 87 

Is there free movement in Germany from bottom 
to top of the educational ladder? It is true that the 
number of poor boys who rise to high positions is 
far greater than is generally understood. There 
are scholarships and various helps to aid poor stu- 
dents in the university, and the fees are small. But 
as we go from bottom to top we find the way to the 
highest education sharply narrowing when we reach 
the secondary schools. They are expensive. One 
has early in life to begin marching along a certain 
route, and not a very broad one, to reach the uni- 
versity. If peculiar talent is discovered, there may 
be those from above who will reach a helping hand 
down to the gifted boy: but there is a constant 
dread of an over-production of university graduates 
as their occupations are somewhat narrowly limited. 
There are some express provisions limiting the op- 
portunities of the universities. For example, in my 
day it was one of the by-laws of the University of 
Heidelberg that day laborers (Taglohner) should not 
be admitted to lectures. Doubtless we have few 
day laborers attending lectures in American uni- 
versities, but an express provision debarring them as 
such would not be tolerated. 

In Germany also we have a country in which all 
children inherit rank, thus creating a great gulf be- 
tween different social strata. While merit counts 
for much, after all, it cannot be denied that espe- 
cial privilege attaches to the nobility (Adel) for 



88 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

whom the very highest offices are generally reserved. 
It is illuminating to turn to the struggle for edu- 
cational equality of opportunity in the United States. 
It required a struggle to establish free tax-supported 
common schools. Those are still living who have 
heard them denounced as involving an improper ex- 
penditure of public moneys. There still lives a very 
distinguished man who has denounced them as no 
better than free soup houses. The struggle to es- 
tablish universal education through the common 
school has practically closed in the United States 
although in most parts of the country attendance 
is not compulsory for all children, and this means 
that many lose the opportunity. Later on, and in 
the memory of men who are still in middle life, the 
controversy concerning the propriety of tax-sup- 
ported public education raged largely around the 
high school. It was said that it was proper to sup- 
port common schools at public expense but those who 
wanted to go beyond the common school should pay 
for their own education. In other words, it should 
be paid for by the parents of the pupils. The strug- 
gle has been won so far as the high schools are con- 
cerned, and at last it has been won in nearly all 
states of the Union so far as college education is 
concerned. The point of controversy at the present 
time concerns the highest education, namely, the 
education at the university as distinguished from col- 
lege education. The university involves large ex- 



The Struggle for Equality of Opportunity 89 

penditures for research, but that means opportunity 
to serve society. Perhaps it cannot he said that in 
any part of the United States the battle has been 
fully won for the universities although it is certainly 
being won. Many tax payers, probably in some 
states the majority, would hold that the highest edu- 
cation is a matter of private concern, although this is 
the kind of education which yields the largest direct 
social benefits, as is pointed out elsewhere in this 
work. 

We now reach the point where democracy is being 
tested at the present moment. Will democracy af- 
ford equality of opportunity to all orders of intel- 
lectual, moral, and social gifts, to those who have 
talents in science, in music, in the fine arts gener- 
ally? Will democracy learn to appreciate fully the 
highest products of men's genius and provide op- 
portunity for. their full growth and expansion! 
Some doubt this, and their faith in democracy halts 
just at this point. 

Some features of American life are a little dis- 
heartening. The demagogue has great opportuni- 
ties in resisting the full development of democracy. 
Elections may be won by taking up the cause of 
mediocrity, but championship of the gifted few is not 
so sure to win 'a majority of the voters. Yet Ameri- 
canism means precisely this faith that there is to 
be opportunity for all in proportion to capacity in 
the United States and that as time goes on we shall 



90 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

have an increasingly high level of leadership in all 
our social life-spheres. Let me give an illustration. 
Years ago a great struggle was going on in the leg- 
islature of Wisconsin in regard to an appropriation 
for a magnificent library building for the University 
and the State Historical Society. I was present at 
the joint session of the legislature when the vote was 
taken, and it was not by any means certain what 
the issue would be. Finally, in a distant part of the 
hall, an old man arose, who spoke in broken Eng- 
lish and looked like a typical old-world peasant. I 
thought to myself, ^^Now we shall have a negative 
vote." Quite the contrary. He made a splendid 
two-minute speech for the bill. He said he would 
not be able to use these great collections of books 
which should be suitably housed, but he had chil- 
dren who, he hoped, could profit by them and when 
the time came to vote he would vote ' ' Aye. ' ' This is 
ideal Americanism. 



CHAPTER VII 

TESTS OF ACTUALi AND PKOPOSED SOCIAL AND 
POLITICAL MEASUEES 

Our twentieth century social philosophy furnishes 
us with tests of different legislative measures, actual 
and proposed, and of general schemes of reform and 
improvement. Let us consider some of these vari- 
ous measures and proposals. 

Primary elections are found in many states of the 
Union. They have been advocated as progressive 
reform and have been hailed with joy as real achieve- 
ment. They are, however, reactionary measures 
and are the outcome of the eighteenth century phi- 
losophy. They remove from the sphere of careful 
deliberation the selection of candidates for office. 
They put a premium upon certain qualities not al- 
together desirable, for they give success to the glib 
talker or to the man who has leisure and wealth to 
cultivate a vast constituency and conduct campaign 
after campaign. A card catalogue system of voters 
flourishes with the primary election. So also is the 
door open for all sorts of manipulation on the part 
of those who are shrewd in the mechanism of politics 
of the lower sort. Candidates are multiplied, votes 

91 



92 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

are divided and the situation becomes so bewilder- 
ing- that only men with keen gifts and experience in 
political management can 'understand fully what is 
going on, and even in their case the chance element 
looms large. The party manager becomes central 
and pivotal and is rewarded in a variety of ways, 
not altogether wholesome, but especially by a privi- 
leged position in the dispensation of patronage. 
Moreover, the primary elections as developed in 
many parts of the country make it almost impossible 
that the elective office should seek the man. The 
man must declare himself a candidate and enter 
upon a contest of a kind which cannot be predicted 
in advance and involving him in unknown expendi- 
tures of time, strength and money. Strong men who 
should be leaders are too inclined to shun the con- 
test involved in primary elections, and a general 
level of mediocrity is about the best that can be 
hoped for in the long run with primary elections. 

It is not intended by this to defend all that went 
with the caucus and the party convention, for much 
of it is very bad; but the old system of selecting 
candidates in conventions of some kind did bring it 
about, at least occasionally, that the elective office 
sought the man, and that the man sought was a very 
strong man. Perhaps the fair-minded historian will 
say that it is not enough to speak of the office seek- 
ing the man as occasional under the convention sys- 
tem. Our historians have shown that the conven- 



Tests of Actual and Proposed Political Measures 93 

tion system has given us very many strong and 
magnificent leaders. This work is not the place in 
which to describe precise political methods. It is 
enough to say that any political machinery which 
does not lead to careful deliberation of competent 
men in the selection of candidates for public office 
is defective. Instead of throwing away by revo- 
lution old methods the right way was their develop- 
ment and improvement.^ 

What shall we say about the initiative, the referen- 
dum and direct legislation generally! These are 
methods of primitive democracy and hark back to 
simple rural conditions. They are tolerably sat- 
isfactory in a remote mountainous canton of Swit- 
zerland, like Uri, where all the voters can come 
together in an open field or in the old town meeting 
in New England where the citizens could gather to- 
gether and discuss their affairs, because citizens are 
few and affairs are very simple. But even in such 
circumstances the results are not altogether satis- 
factory, although much belauded by those to whom 
pictures of a state of nature have a romantic ap- 
peal. 

It is not to be implied from the foregoing general 
rejection of these measures of direct legislation, that 
they have no place at all in a great modern common- 
wealth with all its complexities. The American con- 
stitutions very generally are amended by popular 
vote and the model constitution of an American 



94 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

state, whenever we have the model, will probably 
provide for a referendum in certain simple questions, 
capable of answer by yes or no, when strong and 
self-conscious popular support is needed as a con- 
dition of the successful administration of a law. 
Legislation with respect to the liquor traffic serves 
as illustration. 

Eepresentative democracy or the republican form 
of government as distinguished from primitive 
democracy is that devised by the Founders of this 
Eepublic, and its abandonment in principle is far 
from having produced the predicted felicity. Evo- 
lution instead of revolution is called for with re- 
spect to representative government, for that is the 
only kind which can work well in a complex modern 
society such as we know in the United States in the 
twentieth century. It is the kind of government to 
develop that wise and strong leadership upon which 
our safety and prosperity depend. 

Let us apply our test to the short ballot. Here 
we find a real progressive measure. When there are 
few candidates the character and capacities of these 
candidates may be studied and become known by the 
voters, and in casting their ballots for them they are 
in a position to make choices in proportion to their 
mental and moral capacities for making wise choices. 
The voter's real power is increased by the short 
ballot. Probably no voter should be called upon to 
vote for more than three men in a year, even as a 



Tests of Actual and Proposed Political Measures 95 

maximum. We may turn to foreign countries for 
an example of good government with a short ballot. 
This is a partial explanation of the good government 
found in German cities. If attention is called to the 
fact that it is unusual when a citizen of Munich is 
asked to cast three votes in one year, namely, one 
for a member of the Municip'al Council, one for a 
member of the Bavarian Legislature and one for a 
member of the Eeichstag, the natural reply would be 
that here we have to do with something autocratic 
and something undemocratic. Without stopping to 
argue the question and endeavoring to show that in 
a German city like Munich, we have to do with one 
of the most progressive and least autocratic features 
of German governmental affairs, let us ask our- 
selves the question. What do we find in our own 
federal government which was instituted by as able 
leaders as we have ever known! We vote for the 
President of the United States indirectly in theory, 
but practically we vote for him directly. The de- 
sign of the makers of our Constitution was that the 
citizen should elect electors, and that they should 
carefully select the best man for president. We 
vote for two members of Congress although origin- 
ally for only one directly, namely, the member of 
the House of Eepresentatives. By recent constitu- 
tional amendment we vote directly for United States 
senators. So we vote for three men and generally 
every other year we vote for no one at all for federal 



96 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

office. The President selects liis Cabinet and the 
members of the Supreme Court are appointed for 
life. This gives us the ideas with respect to the 
ballot of the Founders of our Eepublic. We have 
not a perfect government, but more voting would 
not improve it, nor make it more progressive, nor in- 
crease effective control of the people. It is signifi- 
cant that the ablest and — a few unfortunate deci- 
sions to the contrary notwithstanding — the most 
progressive court in the land is a court of men ap- 
pointed for life, the Supreme Court of the United 
States. Here again we do not have perfection, but 
improvement will come through evolution rather 
than revolution. 

Let us apply our test to the recall. How does 
this affect leadership! When one thinks about it 
and all its implications it is seen that it is one of the 
worst blows ever suggested to the development of 
leadership. We have a very complicated industrial 
and social life. We wish suitable men to prepare 
themselves for their functions as leaders in this 
life. Because life is so complicated and its prob- 
lems so difficult for even the best minds to compre- 
hend in all their bearings, it is certain that leaders 
who do what is right are going to be misunderstood 
at times. Even Lincoln, the great leader of democ- 
racy, said: ^^You can fool all of the people some of 
the time''; and it would be difficult to name very 
great men who have not encountered the hostility of 



Tests of Actual and Proposed Political Measures 97 

the mass of the people at some time. To discharge 
their functions as leaders, men must have better in- 
sight than those who are led; they must be able to 
go ahead and to do that which they see to be required 
at a particular time and place and let the people 
^^howl/' sure that in the end they will be justified by 
the outcome of events. There are times when true 
leaders make mistakes, and they must be willing to 
take necessary chances, but they should not be sub- 
ject to the momentary impulses of the people and 
still less to the caprice of the mob. All this our fore- 
fathers saw clearly enough in giving fixed terms of 
office to those selected by election. The President of 
the United States is as secure in his office during the 
term for which he is elected as any monarch could be ; 
and, indeed, it is open to doubt if any sovereign to- 
day sits so securely on his throne as does President 
Wilson in the presidential chair during the term for 
which he has been elected to office. We have an 
orderly method of impeachment where there has 
been gross and wilful culpability, but no president of 
the United States has ever yet been removed from 
office. Happy, indeed, is it for this land that such 
has been the case! This irremovability has made 
firm and solid the seat of authority occupied by 
Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Woodrow Wil- 
son. 

But in keeping our terms of elective office very 
short we have not lived up to the spirit of the found- 



98 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

ers of the Eepublic. Where life is very simple, the 
duties of office may be easily learned and the simplic- 
ity of our early life suggested short terms. Short 
terms were also a reaction from European conditions 
and were furthermore favored by the social philoso- 
phy of equality which has already been described. 
To enable men elected to office to initiate and carry 
out policies in the twentieth century the terms of 
elective office should be much longer, say fr^e years 
for state legislatures, the national House of Repre- 
sentatives, and governors of states, and seven years 
for the President of the United States. The last 
named change would not be feasible, but we are now 
considering what is in itself desirable. If we can 
establish as a fixed iDrinciple the reelection of men 
who have done well as presidents of the United 
States, that will help to make the situation better. 

We have now been discussing elective offices. 
When we come to consider administrative offices, the 
recall is bound to act far more adversely. Adminis- 
trative offices are generally speaking appointive of- 
fices. For these offices there should be preparation 
in schools and by apprenticeship. There should be 
advancement as excellence is achieved and a career 
for talent. Let us take the case of a professor : who 
could prepare himself properly for a professorship 
in a university if subject to recall by popular vote? 
Salaries are not large. On the contrary, they are 



Tests of Actual and Proposed Political Measures 99 

small relatively, as they are likely to be in a democ- 
racy. But so long as a career is afforded with se- 
curity of tenure, the position of a professor has its 
attractions, and it may have such surroundings and 
conditions as to attract even higher talent than it 
generally does at the present time, and this because 
now some of the conditions attached to a professor- 
ship are not sufficiently favorable to counteract a low 
salary and some other adverse circumstances. The 
recall then stands condemned by our tests. 

All our economic arrangements both as to labor 
and capital should be regarded with reference to the 
development of leadership. At last organized labor 
is beginning to develop capable leadership, and we 
have in President Samuel Gompers, of the American 
Federation of Labor, our tirst labor statesman. It 
is not necessary to endorse his laissez-faire policies, 
so far as government is concerned and his rather 
narrow ideas of the functions of government. It is 
a great thing for this country that we have in him in 
our present crisis a loyal labor statesman. In this as 
otherwise the organization of labor has justiiied it- 
self, and we tremble to think what would be the result 
if any inferior and disloyal man now occupied such a 
position as Gompers holds. Always and everywhere 
we must apply our test to the organization of labor 
and inquire about the qualities of leadership which it 
develops. 



100 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

Business in the United States has been guilty of 
much misdoing, and this misdoing has furnished 
fruitful soil for the muckraker. It has been fre- 
quently selfish and unscrupulous, but this is only one 
aspect of the situation. Take them by and large, 
probably no country has, on the whole, a finer and 
more honorable class of business men than the 
United States. The rewards of business have been 
great, and business has attracted talent. Men who 
elsewhere would have gone into professional or pub- 
lic life have in this country devoted rare gifts to 
business. The vast riches of an undeveloped conti- 
nent have been placed at the disposal of capacity — 
even thoughtlessly and recklessly so, — and the result 
is seen in mammoth fortunes and big business con- 
ducted on a huge scale. Titanic is a word Avhich 
suggests itself when we consider business in the 
United States. Business has ^^made good" in the 
development of leadership, and this leadership is 
helping to save the government and the world for 
civilization at the present time. It has developed 
largeness of vision, and there has been in many quar- 
ters a splendid response to patriotism. We find men 
neglecting their business and new opportunities to 
acquire fortunes in order to serve our government at 
large pecuniary sacrifice. We may cite as one of 
many possible illustrations, Charles M. Schwab, 
^^ leader of men," and Director-General of the Emer- 
gency Fleet Corporation.^ When we consider busi- 



Tests of Actual and Proposed Political Measures 101 

ness in the United States with reference to leader- 
ship, we have its strongest feature. 

On the other hand, the point of view of private 
business is different from the point of view of public 
business. One has only to think concretely of fre- 
quently recurring- situations to see how true this is 
and to appreciate its significance. Here and now 
attention is directed simply to the time element. In 
arrangements where the public interest is involved, 
we must take a long-time view. We must look much 
farther ahead than the life of any living being, think- 
ing about what is going to happen a hundred or more 
years from the present. Success in public affairs 
implies a certain way of looking at things, as well as 
an appropriate training, just as much as does the 
management of any great industrial enterprise. 
We have the splendid leadership of business men at 
Washington and elsewhere, but it is more or less 
one-sided leadership and is not adequately matched 
by corresponding capacity on the part of men holding 
office and particularly administrative office. In 
other words, we do not have a civil service manned 
by officials who are able to take great leadership such 
as is demanded by the present situation. Upon 
those in our civil service are imposed tasks upon the 
satisfactory performance of which in large measure 
the future of civilization depends, and we have not 
as a rule in the civil service office-holders who are 
splendid leaders equal to their tasks. 



102 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

"We shall consider this further in our chapter on 
*^ Leadership in Public Life/' First, however, we 
must discuss the foundations of leadership and what 
goes with leadership. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE FOUNDATIONS OF LEADEKSHIP 

We must have leadership in war and in business; for 
without it we perish. This, it is hoped, has already 
been made sufficiently obvious, but, if not, it is 
trusted that it will become so as we proceed in our 
argument. Now let us consider the foundations of 
leadership. 

So important is leadership in war that when we 
mention the great leader we scarcely think of the 
others who have cooperated with him. The leader- 
ship of Germany, bad as it is morally, has been 
strong from the military point of view. Austria col- 
lapses, and again and again the Germans with their 
leadership enable the Austrians to come back to the 
conflict and to win victories. Germany's leadership 
transforms the Turks and strengthens all her allies. 
Nevertheless, it would be a sad mistake to suppose 
that leadership did not rest upon foundations in the 
individuals led. This has been recognized also by 
Germany, for she has done more than any other 
country to provide strong material for leadership. 
No other country has so high an average of men 

103 



104 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

trained intellectually and physically for the tasks of 
industry and of war. Men and women who are in- 
ferior physically are not good material for leader- 
ship. A sound physique is one foundation for lead- 
ership. Another foundation of leadership is found 
in trained minds. Ignorance is a poor leader and 
pious aspirations cannot replace science nor do we 
have to go to Germany to learn the importance of 
education. If education is important in an autoc- 
racy, it has a double importance in a democracy. 
Adam Smith, although an adherent of laissez-faire, 
emphasizes in his Wealth of Nations the importance 
of education in a free government and, although con- 
trary to his general principles, so impressed was he 
with the importance of education, where the people 
control, that he concedes the soundness of taxation 
for the purpose of education. Our o\vn George 
Washington is very clear in his public utterances 
concerning the necessity of education in a democracy 
and in his wonderful Farewell Address — which every 
school child ought to memorize — he uses these wise 
words : ' - 

*' Promote then, as an object of primary impor- 
tance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowl- 
edge. In proportion as the structure of government 
gives force to public opinion, it is essential that pub- 
lic opinion should be enlightened." 

But intellectual enlightenment is not enough. One 
of the foundations for" sound leadership must be 



The Foundations of Leadership 105 

found in the clmracter of the individual and this can- i 
not be emphasized too strongly. 

It is after all individual character which is the 
foundation of all social achievements. Individual 
character sets the limit to what can be done through 
all social agencies. As John Stuart Mill, one of the 
wisest Englishmen of the nineteenth century, well 
said, we must test all social reforms by their effect 
upon the individual character. It is quite certain 
that we do not have as good a government as we 
could have, but nevertheless the character of the men 
and women who live in a given society sets limits to 
all the possibilities of social and political achieve- 
ments. If under these circumstances we improve 
government, we have a reaction upon individual 
character. Here we come upon the truth so well 
enunciated by the great Greek historian, Thucydides, 
who said that the explanation of all history is this : 
A causes B, B causes A. In other words, we have 
action and reaction in a never ceasing evolution. By 
all means let us strive for the best possible govern- 
ment, but remember that, if the individuals in the 
nation are rotten, the government is also bound to 
be rotten, and that every improvement in individual 
character makes possible a further social advance. 

But Washington knew full well that the character ^ 
of the individual must rest back on a religious foun- 
dation. He realized that without character the 
foundations of the nations, must be rotten, and that 



106 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

character without religion could not persist. Let us 
quote again wise words from his Farewell Address : 

''Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to 
political prosperity, religion and morality are indis- 
pensable supports. In vain would that man claim 
the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to sub- 
vert these great pillars of human happiness, these 
firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The 
mere politician equally with the pious man, ought 
to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not 
trace all their connections with private and public 
felicity. Let it simply be asked where is the security 
for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of 
religious obligation desert the oaths which are the 
instruments of investigation in courts of justice! 
And let us with caution indulge the supposition that 
morality can be maintained without religion. 
Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined 
education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and 
experience both forbid us to expect that national 
morality can prevail in exclusion of religious princi- 
ple. '^ 

Leadership in a democracy must be grounded on 
the cooperation of all social and economic classes. 
Widest diversities must be unified in that working 
together which will enable us to make our full force 
as a nation effective wherever and whenever needed, 
for only thus can America be made invincible. Our 
Councils of Defense, our Eed Cross societies, and 



The Foundations of Leadership 107 

other patriotic organizations are a magnificent begin- 
ning of that cooperation which embraces the entire 
nation. These Councils of Defense include richest 
diversities of talent, all effectively united in one 
grand whole. They are bringing us together and 
organizing America as a nation. Under no circum- 
stances must they be allowed to lapse after the War. 
They are a foundation for leadership which at the 
same time they cultivate and develop. 

Another foundation of leadership is that vision 
without which the people perish. All classes must 
have the vision of light. We find a" vision growing in 
our schools of all grades and reaching a splendid 
climax in our universities which are gaining in 
spiritual riches far more than they are losing other- 
wise at this time of national crisis. The employing 
classes and the rich men of the country are gaining 
a vision which separates this war by the widest gulf 
from all previous wars in our history when profiteer- 
ing went unrebuked and rich men could hire poor 
men as substitutes to go to war and be shot for them 
— a thing now abhorrent to our moral sense. The 
well-to-do classes are gaining a vision of strong edu- 
cated working classes, whose children are not to be 
exploited, but are to be regarded as having every 
opportunity for worthy development, according to 
their capacities. Thank God, we are now all think- 
ing about the desirability of wholesome work, duly 
limited and adequately rewarded ; but our foundation 



108 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

would be rotten if the toilers themselves thought only 
of high wages and short hours. Much of the talk we 
hear is an insult to the wage-earners, because it is 
based upon the hypothesis that they alone are to gain 
by war, that their wages are to be increased and 
hours shortened, and that they are not to be called 
upon to make sacrifices for this civilization of ours 
upon which their future well-being and prospect of 
advancement and their participation in the best 
things of life depend. It is not prudent that anyone 
should ordinarily lessen his capacity for work to- 
morrow by over work to-day; but we must all be 
ready to work day and night and to perish if need be 
in our work for the common good. Our vision of 
better things for those who have been regarded as 
the lowly, our vision of a happy future for the ex- 
ploited must not be a vision which will conceive them 
as not called upon to make sacrifices of every kind 
for the common good ; for such a vision is one which 
contemplates them as inferior human beings, not en- 
titled to share in the toils and sacrifices of all for the 
sake of the highest goods of humanity. The vision 
for which we fight is a vision of fellowship embracing 
all groups and classes, wage-earner and employer, 
cooperators in spirit, suffering together in adversity, 
rejoicing together in prosperity. The vision for 
which we fight is a vision of a society so organized 
materially and spiritually that there may be joy in 
work for all and that work may be worship.^ 



The Foundations of Leadership 109 

We come now to Americanization as an absolutely 
essential foundation in our national life. Perhaps 
we may call it the very corner stone of our social 
structure. Upon it we must build leadership. 

Let us consider several things that Americaniza- 
tion means. It means loyalty to country based upon 
the profound emotional experience which is called 
love. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. This is 
no empty form of words to the patriot. In our day, 
however, we have a class of disloyal men who prate 
loudly about a supernational loyalty which obliterates 
loyalty to native country, or the country of one's 
adoption. These men deserve the deepest contempt 
and it is well that they are receiving it. Every true 
loyalty includes all other loyalties. The man who 
professes to love his country and is not loyal to those 
in his own family and his immediate circle, is not to 
be trusted. Loyalty to one 's own is the basis of loy- 
alty to those remote and to every larger circle of 
loyalty. The world is not yet organized as a whole 
and any realistic interpretation of the facts of life 
does not permit us to regard the time when national 
loyalty will not come first as a time near enough so 
that we need to concern ourselves with it. The world 
loyalty which is not based on national loyalty is a 
sham, a delusion, a snare. 

How shall we produce the needed loyalty? Many 
are working on this problem and much that is praise- 
worthy is being done. It is well to display the flag, 



110 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

to stand as the flag" passes by, to salute the flag, and 
to carry the flag" in our church processionals where it 
is associated with things that we esteem most sacred 
and holy. It is well that the flag should float over 
every schoolhouse and be associated with childish 
memories as a very essential part of all education. 
In our American life we have not made sufficient use 
of ceremonies as outward and visible symbols of ''in- 
ward and spiritual" meanings. For the use of cere- 
monies and symbols in g-eneral is based on deep- 
seated and ineradicable traits of human nature. It 
is consequently well that to an ever increasing 
extent we have ceremonies when those of foreign 
birth are naturalized, impressing upon them what 
American citizenship should mean ; ^ and the sug- 
gestion is a good one that on reaching the age when 
the first ballot may be cast, a ceremony should 
accompany the induction into the privileges of the 
ballot. 

All this, however, does not begin to be enough. I 
well remember a conversation with the Honorable 
Andrew D. White when American minister to Ger- 
many. Speaking of Cornell University, of which he 
was then president, he said, ''We do not make a man 
a friend by doing something for him, but when he 
does something for Cornell he becomes a firm 
friend. ' ' This remark was based upon a true percep- 
tion of the psychical qualities of men. It is illus- 
trated in the relation between child and parent. 



The Foundations of Leadership 111 

Parents are ever doing things for their children, and 
one may contrast the love of the parent for the child 
with the quality of the love of the child for the 
parent. Generally it will be felt that there is a 
warmer and deeper quality in the love of the jjarent 
for the child and frequently it is observed that the 
child first comes to appreciate the father and mother 
love when the child itself becomes a parent. 
When we all come to make real genuine sacrifices 
for our country, sacrifices of which we are conscious, 
then we shall first begin to have the right kind of 
loyal love for our country. We shall never get 
that kind of love merely by pouring untold bene- 
fits upon the citizens. For this reason, among many 
others, we may advocate a yearns service to society 
for all men and women born in the country or who 
are permitted to live in the country. Where there is 
capability for military service this should be in- 
cluded, even if it is not the exclusive service rendered. 
Where there is not capability for military service 
some other service should be rendered. Military 
service is put first because, as Washington truly per- 
ceived, this will always be needed as a condition of 
our national self-respect and independence. Those 
are idle dreamers who think that we are on the eve 
of an age when national protection will not be neces- 
sary. It remains just as true now as in Washing- 
ton's time that as a condition of our peace, we must 
prepare for war. We are not a military nation and 



112 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

we shall never become one. We do not desire war, 
but only the maintenance of peace.^ Universal mili- 
tary service as a part of the education of all people 
does not mean objectionable militarism. It is not 
that which has produced the deplorable condition in 
Germany, but something else which has been already 
at least partially explained. 

Universal military service in Germany in itself 
has been a good feature of the life of that country. 
It has strengthened the nation in its intellectual and 
economic activities and has been an agency of prog- 
ress. Without it the marvelous prosperity of Ger- 
many would not have been possible. The caste sys- 
tem of Germany which reaches its highest and most 
offensive manifestation in the German army is no 
necessary feature of her universal military system, 
any more than is her gross materialism or her wor- 
ship of brute force. It is her tribal religion and her 
accompanying tribal ethics that are to blame for the 
attack on the world's peace and that have led to her 
own deep damnation. This cannot be too strongly 
emphasized, because we and our allies too seem so 
generally to fail to appreciate what the particular 
kind of cult of war that has been fostered in Germany 
may do to a nation. Yet have we not abundant illus- 
trations of the effects of peculiar religious beliefs in 
India and in Turkey? A certain view of life can 
become all-controlling and has so become in Ger- 
many, and this nationally egoistic view of life has 



The Foundations of Leadership 113 

used as a tool the universal military service as it lias 
the educational system of Germany. 

Turning from the old world to the new world, we 
find that universal military service in Australia is 
one of the best features of the life there and may 
some time save Australia from dire national disaster. 
It produces splendid results in New Zealand and also 
in Switzerland, where it has existed for generations. 
Do not let us delude ourselvQs with thinking that we 
are going to come out of this war into a dreamland of 
lotus eaters. Such a dreamland is something that 
true men and true women with red blood in their 
veins cannot look upon as something desirable. 
Stern military virtues are a part of any true ideal of 
life. Well it is if we do not have to make war to 
defend ''our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred 
honor," but just in proportion as war recedes into 
the background, we must find substitutes for war 
that will give those virtues which war has brought to 
the human race. We need to keep alive the spirit of 
sacrifice and to keep the will vigorous by regularly 
pitting it against difficulties. Let us then cultivate a 
contempt for that unworthy pacifism which has been 
well nigh the undoing of our country, and let us learn 
to appreciate, as did George Washington, the impor- 
tance of military training. Surely the awful experi- 
ences of the past four years have sufficiently empha- 
sized the necessity of military preparedness as a con- 
dition of liberty. 



114 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

Let us accord to the soldier due honor. He takes 
his life in his hands for the defense of his country 
and he deserves the consideration which is spontane- 
ously given him and against which only milk-and- 
water weaklings have raised their voices. We need 
military service to knit us together, to build up indi- 
vidual character and develop a strong nationality. 
Throw together our boys from all parts of the coun- 
try in military service, let them work together for 
the nation in military service and in other service 
when they are not capable of rendering military serv- 
ice, and we shall find that the melting pot will melt, 
and we shall not in the future have the deplorable 
conditions which now exist in so many parts of our 
country. 

As for the women, I would have them adequately 
trained for their merciful functions in human con- 
servation as associated with the Eed Cross, social 
service, child hygiene, etc. 

Another benefit of this service to native land is 
that it will bring all our human resources into view 
and uncover defects of every sort. It is a benefit 
which we are now experiencing from even the inade- 
quate service which we are at present enjoying. We 
have our census of farm animals, we have our soils 
surveys. Is it not of the highest importance that we 
should have constantly going on a survey of our 
human resources ? We then shall learn to know what 
kind of human beings we have as citizens and poten- 



The Foundations of Leadership 115 

tial citizens. We shall then know where defects exist 
and we shall learn how to apply suitable remedies.^ 

As a part of the preparation of our human ma- 
terial we shall give increasing attention to eugenics. 
We know very little about race betterment as yet, but 
we do know some things of significance. We do know 
that heredity is a force which sets limits to all our 
activities, and which, if entirely neglected, leads to 
decay and ruin in the nation. We have got far 
enough to recognize that there are certain human 
beings who are absolutely unfit and who should be 
prevented from a continuation of their kind. We 
do know it is important that a superior stock should 
not be swallowed up and lost by a more rapid increase 
of the inferior stock. The following suggestive quo- 
tations from Professor Michael F. Guyer's book, 
Being Well Born, deserve the most careful consid- 
eration. 

''Modern eugenists, although realizing that the 
constructive phase is of great importance, are making 
no attempt to map out any fixed mode of procedure 
for it beyond pointing out the desirability of larger 
families among the better classes. The need for 
individuals of superior physical, mental and moral 
qualities to multiply is so obvious as scarcely to re- 
quire comment. Yet the fact is that judging from all 
appearances these are the very ones who have the 
lowest birth-rate. Eugenics is mainly concerned 
with the relative rates of increase of the various 



116 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

classes, not with mere fertility in itself. And the 
actual increase must be measured in terms of the 
extent to which birth-rate exceeds death-rate. If a 
high birth-rate is accompanied by a high death-rate 
then it is not especially significant in increasing a 
given class as a whole. All available evidence points 
to the fact that to-day the lower strata of society are 
far outbreeding the middle and higher, with an al- 
most negligible difference in death-rate, and just in 
the measure that these lower strata are innately in- 
ferior just in that degree must the race deteriorate. 
The seriousness of the whole situation as it exists 
to-day hinges, therefore, on the extent to which the 
lower strata are inferior to those above them. 

''In evaluating these lower strata a matter of very 
great importance is whether the population is a se- 
lected or an unselected one. If the population has 
been long resident in a given region and has had 
fairly good opportunity for education then we will 
find in the lower reaches a larger percentage of sedi- 
mentation made up of the worthless and inferior 
stocks. If, however, a continual fomentation and 
geographical shifting of the population is in prog- 
ress as in parts of America, or if adequate educa- 
tional opportunities are lacking, as in some parts of 
Eussia, the poor and less well-to-do classes may con- 
tain, no one can tell how much, relatively valuable 
stock. 

''Forel remarks on this point as follows: 'If we 



The Foundations of Leadership 117 

compare the nature of delinquents, abandoned chil- 
dren, vagabonds, etc., in a country where little or 
nothing has been done for the people (Russia, 
Galicia, Vienna, etc.), with that of the same individ- 
uals in Switzerland, for example, where much has 
already been done for the poor, we find this result : 
In Switzerland, those individuals are nearly all 
tainted with alcoholism, or pathological heredity; 
they consist of alcoholics, incorrigibles, and congeni- 
tal decadents, and education can do little for them 
because nearly all those who have a better hereditary 
foundation have been able to earn their living by hon- 
est work. In Russia, Galicia, and even in Vienna, 
we are, on the contrary, astonished to see how many 
honest natures there are among the disinherited when 
they are provided with work and education. ' ^ 

*^ Although we can not sift out with certainty the 
superior from the inferior in our normal population 
by the property test or the educational standard 
alone, it is undoubtedly true that, on the whole, native 
ability, independence and energy are present to a 
higher degree in our well-to-do and prosperous fam- 
ilies than in the stocks which merely hold their own 
or which gradually decline, and there is no gainsay- 
ing the fact that in so far as the lower classes are 
where they are through actual deficiency — and there 
are enormous numbers in this category — they 
threaten our very existence as a race. It is impera- 
tive that the great middle class in particular establish 



118 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

in some way a selective birth-rate, by increased fer- 
tility on their own part, and diminished fecundity on 
the part of inferior stocks, which will offset or more 
than offset the disproportionate increase of the so- 
cially unfit. ' ' ^ 

But our examination of the foundations of leader- 
ship presupposes the willingness to be led. Does 
such a willingness exist? Men are glad to accept 
leadership, and this can be seen in all stages of social 
evolution. There is sometimes, however, difficulty in 
distinguishing between the self-seeking demagogue 
and the true leader. The demagogue seeks to win 
the people for his own selfish ends, by lying and flat- 
tery and by imputing to them a degree of goodness 
and wisdom that they do not possess. On the other 
hand, the demagogue teaches the people to view with 
distrust and suspicion all those superior in capacities 
and fortunes, culture and education. Your dema- 
gogue loves to pull down all of the high elements in 
society and a favorite method is to follow up the flat- 
tery of the people by the imputation of base motives 
to explain the actions of true leaders, even when good 
motives would afford more logical explanation, his 
own unworthy soul serving him as a mirror that 
twists and distorts the envisaged image of his fellow- 
man. While the real leader is to be sought, the dem- 
agogue is to be shunned as the Devil's emissary. 
Our schools should include in their curricula the 
study of the character of the best leaders of men, our 



The Foundations of Leadership 119 

great teachers, soldiers, statesmen, etc., so as to cre- 
ate an admiration for the high qualities of men, an 
admiration leading to efforts to produce, so far as 
may be, like qualities in themselves, while at the same 
time a detestation of the mean qualities of the dema- 
gogue should be inculcated. Character should be 
emphasized as essential to the true leader, and it 
should be pointed out how again and again plausible 
men with weak moral qualities and especially exag- 
gerated egoism play the people false sooner or later. 
It is also well to develop in school children a distrust 
of the one that is a mere glib talker, and glib talk 
should be distinguished from true eloquence. In 
short, we have here again a task of education as a 
preparation for true democracy ; and we see how vast 
is the function of education in society. It requires 
faith to believe that educational agencies will bo able 
to prepare us for the daily increasing difficulties of 
our growing civilization, but that faith is inseparable 
from true Americanism. 

Finally, we must not think of society as divided 
into sharply defined classes, namely, the leaders and 
the led. Those who are leaders in one capacity will 
be the led in another capacity. An infinitely complex 
interweaving of social strata will be found in our de- 
mocracy of the future, and there will be a continual 
movement upwards and downwards according to true 
worth."^ 



APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VIII 

In England a movement has been started called the Duty 
and Discipline Movement. It is suggested that if a move- 
ment of this kind is needed in England, it is equally needed 
in the United States. The following is taken from a circu- 
lar issued some time ago by the leaders of this movement.^ 

"The Movement . . . has been started to combat soft- 
ness, slackness, indifference, and indiscipline, and to stimu- 
late discipline, and a sense of duty and alertness through- 
out the national life, especially during the formative period 
of home and school training. 

''The writings of Treitschke and Bernhardi and many 
other Teutonic writers of eminence, prove incontestably, 
that the Germans had, for many years before the present 
war, considered that wealth and prosperity and many long 
years of unshaken peace within the British Isles, had led to 
a softening of British moral fibre, which would render 
easy the transfer of the sceptre of imperial power from 
British to German hands. Subsequent events have proved 
that if there was any justifiable reason for believing that 
moral decadence had overtaken the British people, that 
decadence had been greatly exaggerated by our present 
enemies. Although the magnificent response which has lately 
been witnessed to the call of duty, to King and Country, 
show that the British race are in no way inferior to their 
predecessors in high moral qualities, the supporters of the 
'Duty and Discipline' Movement believe that the national 
security demands, and at the conclusion of peace will more 
especially demand, that a continual vigilance be maintained 

120 



The Foundations of Leadership 121 

in order that the demoralising influences of wealth and of its 
inevitable accompaniment 'luxury' which in the case of 
former Empires have invariably led to their destruction — 
be watched and restrained by the exercise of a strong, or- 
ganised, public opinion. 

^'In this view the 'Duty and Discipline' Movement has 
been started." 

The objects of the movement are thus briefly summarized : 

''(1) To combat softness, slackness, indifference and 
indiscipline, and to stimulate discipline and a sense of duty 
and alertness throughout the national life, especially dur- 
ing the formative period of home and school training. 

" (2) To give reasonable support to all legitimate author- 
ity." 

The movement deals with principles and not with meth- 
ods. It has published and circulated many Essays on Duty 
and Discipline. It has also a series called the Patriot Series 
and a series of fly sheets. These are all sold at small prices. 
Such subjects as these are treated : 

Our Children: Are We Doing the Best for Them? 

A ''Spoilt Child." 

Sentimental England. 

The Early Training of Boys in Citizenship. 

Duty and Discipline in the Training of Children. 

The Value of a Certain "Hardness" in Education. 

Wanted — A Fair Start in Life. Some Thoughts for 
Working Mothers. 

Endure Hardness. 

Discipline and Training in the Prevention of Nervous 
Diseases. 

A Magistrate's View of Slack Discipline. 

A New Way of Life. 

Moral and Religious Training. 

Thoroughness. 



122 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

The Decay of Authority. 

A Voice of Warning. 

The Training of Delicate Children. 

Concerning the Home. 

The Curse of Sentimentality. 

How to Deal with Obstinate Children. 

Parental Neglect or Indifference. 

The Theory and Practice of Punishment. 

The Pert Small Girl. 

Disinherited — The Cry of the Spoilt Children. 



CHAPTER IX 

IDEALS OF LEADERSHIP 

Leadership of some sort we have always had and we 
always must have. The conditions of human exist- 
ence in a world like ours make leadership inevitable. 
The only choice we have is as to the kind of leader- 
ship. In the worst days of American ^'spoils poli- 
tics,'^ we had our political leaders and our class of 
office holders. I have seen letter carriers march by 
a desk and each one deposit two per cent, of his sal- 
ary for the campaign expenses of the party then in 
power. Our political life at that time had reached 
a low ebb, but we had our leaders and we had a class 
of office holders as we always must have. These 
office holders had their nominal and their true chiefs. 
They received their positions as a condition of service 
in partisan politics, and their first allegiance was to 
the political boss. Men then spoke of going into pol- 
itics just as they spoke of going into business and to 
go into politics meant on the lowest rung of the social 
ladder to become a ward heeler. It took a long time 
to arouse our people to the evils of this kind of lead- 
ership, but a body of men with high ideals, even 
though frequently with inadequate ideals, strove for 

123 



124 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

better things and we now have a better civil service, 
— one which has reached a comparatively high level 
in Wisconsin, where the Civil Service Commission 
has adopted as its inspiring motto, ^^The best shall 
serve the state/' Curiously enough, those who re- 
sisted the change from this state of public life, used 
demagogic appeals which influenced some well mean- 
ing people who were frightened by the words * ' class 
of office holders," although we had already a class of 
office holders. Many were the catch phrases used by 
demagogues to bolster up the bad system with its bad 
leadership. 

The modern Bolsheviki have brought to the surface 
in all parts of the world bad ideals of leadership. 
They have in Russia displaced from leadership in in- 
dustrial and public life all the upper strata and given 
control to those who constitute the lower strata. 
They attach merit to past failure to secure leadership 
in any of the various recognized forms of leadership. 
Failure is to them a ground for recognition. 

Now in any society it is likely that those especially 
capable will make their way to the top. In what has 
been quoted from Professor Guyer's book we see 
qualifications to be made in the case of a country like 
Eussia. Yet even here the men with the best moral 
and intellectual qualities have been largely thrust 
aside by the envious and insane malevolence of those 
who for the time being have gained the upper hand ; 
the old leaders in industry have lost effective control 



Ideals of Leadership 125 

and factory production, as stated by Professor Eoss, 
recently returned from Russia, lias fallen one-lialf. 
The people are impoverished on account of bad lead- 
ership. 

Intellectual leadership is not enough. It must 
terminate in spiritual leadership or perhaps it is 
better to say it should be crowned with spiritual lead- 
ership. We are feeling miore and more the need of 
such leadership as a condition of our salvation as a 
nation. We hear much nowadays about inspirational 
leadership as something which should belong to all 
schools. Spiritual leadership is, however, the true 
term to be used, for this kind of leadership is neces- 
sarily inspirational. More and more we are feeling 
that in our public education there is something lack- 
ing because it does hot in adequate measure carry 
with it spiritual leadership. The capacity for such 
leadership should be one of the tests of fitness for 
work on the part of those who have positions of 
special responsibility in our educational system 
whether this be public or private. 

The ideal of leadership is leadership of the best. 
It is not an hereditary and spurious aristocracy such 
as has been fostered in the old world, but it is a true 
aristocracy towards which the best spirits in America 
have ever striven, an aristocracy of character, an 
aristocracy excelling in service. Everywhere we are 
beginning to glimpse this ideal. Business men are 
responding to it. This is precisely what it means to 



126 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

put business on a professional plane. This is what it 
me^ns to appeal to labor to do its best in the service 
of all, — an appeal meeting in many places with a mag- 
nificent response. This is what it means to recognize 
merit in all ranks of society and to reward it. This 
is what it means to keep open always from top to bot- 
tom a broad avenue of success. This kind of leader- 
ship in industry and public life is becoming an in- 
spiration and for it men are striving. It is this 
thought which finds expression in the work of Profes- 
sor E. D. Jones of Michigan. See, for example, his 
book. The Business Administrator. From a letter 
from Professor Jones, the following inspiring words 
are quoted : ' ' I hope to see industry made more just 
and generous not only through a democratic process, 
but by the formation of a code of ideals of profes- 
sional competence for administrators — an aristo- 
cratic test with noblesse oblige in it." 

It is also this ideal of leadership which finds ex- 
pression in the book of Professor Charles A. Ell- 
wood called The Social Problem. This book fur- 
nishes an analysis of the social problem of "Western 
Civilization and finds that it consists in the establish- 
ment of right" leadership. We come again to the 
great problem of our day, the problem of twentieth 
century democracy. How shall we avail ourselves of 
the superiorities of the few in the service of the 
many! This is also the problem of religion and the 
Christian religion is the greatest of all religions be- 



Ideals of Leadership 127 

cause the highest and best Leader man has qver 
known became the servant of all and put His life into 
the service of man. 

The leadership of sovereigns has in some cases 
been admirable and whether good or bad, it has 
played a great and necessary role in the evolution of 
human society. On the whole, probably it may be 
said that the Hohenzollerns as leaders have been con- 
spicuous for industry, thrift and efficiency. The 
English kings have apparently been less thrifty; and 
probably it may be said it has proved a great blessing 
to England that such has been the case. The English 
kings have dissipated their estates and had to resort 
to taxes for their own support and the maintenance 
of the functions of the state. This made it necessary 
to petition Parliament for taxes and Parliament com- 
mg finally to control the purse-strings gained ascend- 
ancy over the English royal house. The English 
people liked their growing liberties and exhibited 
ruthless sturdiness in maintaining them in opposition 
to royal inroads upon their rights. One writer said 
of the English kings that they were kings of devils 
because their subjects were so ready to revolt and 
depose them and even to behead them. The kings in 
the German states, being thriftier, maintained better 
their inherited dominions and fiscal prerogatives and 
have been thus able to keep political power in their 
hands to a far greater extent even to this day. 

One of the worst features of the kings as leaders 



128 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

is that tliey form a separate caste and intermarry 
only among themselves. They are mighty above all 
others. The Kaiser is ^^All Highest" and he wor- 
ships the ' ' Highest. ' ' Even in England the kings do 
not intermarry with their subjects. The grandest 
and noblest of citizens, however high their rank, are 
below the royal caste and may not intermarry with 
members of the royal family. The kings may marry 
with the base, with the diseased, with inferior stock, 
with families in which insanity is too prevalent, pro- 
vided only that these families are sovereign families. 
The families may be descendants from deposed 
sovereigns, like the mediatized families of Germany, 
but if they have been sovereign families they form a 
part of this caste. 

The leadership of kings on this account is a very 
bad leadership and the terms of international peace 
should make a radical change in the situation just 
described. The Hohenzollerns should be deposed 
and the royal families of England, Belgium and Italy 
and of other allied countries, if permitted to remain, 
should do so only on condition that they intermarry 
with their own subjects who should be regarded not 
as subjects so much as fellow citizens. From a 
eugenic point of view this would be a vast improve- 
ment, but from the point of view of national leader- 
ship, it would mean still more. As things are now, 
the loyalty of sovereigns is a mixed loyalty — a loy- 
alty to family and a loyalty to the country over which 



Ideals of Leadership 129 

tliey reign. There is a divided royal allegiance which 
in this War has proved most pernicious. The Em- 
peror of Germany thinks not only of Germany, but 
of his brother-in-law, the King of Greece, of his rela- 
tionship to the King of Roumania and of his connec- 
tions with other royal families, including that of the 
deposed Czar. He breathes out threatenings and 
slaughter to the Greeks because they ventured to 
depose the man who married his sister. Without ad- 
ducing other illustration of the situation produced by 
the caste of royalty in Europe, attention may be di- 
rected to the position of Holland at the time that this 
is being written. The Queen of Holland has married 
a German Prince. This German Prince has openly 
shown his leanings towards Germany, having at the 
very outset of the War given such personal assist- 
ance as he could to German officers and has received 
some kind of nominal punishment therefor. Is it 
conceivable that Queen Wilhelmina of Holland 
should be uninfluenced by her German affiliations 
even if it be granted that she sides with the Allies, 
whose complete and overwhelming victory would re- 
move the gravest menace to Holland's future. 
There is great danger that this connection may lead 
to disaster and impair the future of Holland. What- 
ever may be the feelings and hopes of the royal fam- 
ily, Holland, apart from this family and some of the 
families of the higher aristocracy, sympathizes with 
the Allies. The country has a magnificent past and 



130 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

is republican in sympathy. Probably every one who 
spends any time in Holland has heard the statement 
that Holland would become a Eepublic were it not 
for the love they bear to the House of Orange, to 
which they feel they owe their liberties. The situa- 
tion is a dangerous one, and certainly if the royal 
family remains in Holland, it should be upon the con- 
dition already named, that is to say, intermarriage 
with the Dutch. It cannot then be too strongly em- 
phasized that the peace terms should democratize the 
royal families so that there should be a free flow of 
blood upwards and downwards even if royalty is 
hereditary. International family allegiances of 
sovereigns should cease. It is not that we wish to 
interfere with the internal domestic arrangements 
of foreign countries, but that this proposed measure 
is a condition of international safety and one step 
on the long and weary road towards peace. 

Before leaving this subject of kings as leaders, at- 
tention is simply called to the absurd situation in 
which most nations of the world have allowed them- 
selves to be placed with respect to sovereign families. 
It is ludicrous as well as tragic that certain families 
should have been allowed so to set themselves apart 
and above all the rest of the world as to refuse to 
intermarry with any other families and by inter- 
marriage among themselves to become an exclu- 
sive ruling caste with all the privileges pertain- 
ing to rulership. These families have made a busi- 



Ideals of Leadership 131 

ness, or rather a profession, of rulersMp, and 
they have been able to induce highly civilized 
countries like England to sanction the exclusive 
claims, with the result as just stated that they go out- 
side their own countries to secure mates and that 
when a line fails in one country, other countries are 
turned to to supply rulers. This means, as things go, 
that Germany has almost a monopoly of sovereigns 
and has woven a network reaching out into all parts 
of the world. In nothing has German arrogance as- 
serted itself more boldly and more successfully. 
Think of this situation in the eighteenth century. 
England sends to Germany for a king and as a result 
we have George the Third, stupid and obstinate, who 
becomes responsible for the American Revolution and 
the loss to England of her choicest colonies. Eng- 
land has learned a lesson so far as her other colonies 
are concerned and the whole British Commonwealth 
now feels under obligations to America for asserting 
her independence. Nevertheless, even enlightened 
and democratic England still permits the royal fam- 
ily to assert -its exclusive matrimonial superiority to 
all other English families. 

Lloyd George recently acknowledged the loyal 
services of the English king and queen who are 
endearing themselves not only to the English peo- 
ple but to Americans. It is to be hoped and be- 
lieved that they themselves will be willing to change 
this feature of the English kingship and to socialize 



132 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

tlie English royal family. And could the heroic 
King of Belgium and his noble Queen, who have 
endeared themselves to the Allied hosts of democ- 
racy, object to this salutary socialization of their 
royal family? We cannot but believe that our pro- 
posed measure, if adopted, would be welcomed by 
them as a happy release from the oppressions exer- 
cised by foreign, and especially German, royal 
families. 



CHAPTER X 

LEADERSHIP IIT PUBLIC LIFE 

Public life is divided into two great brandies, mili- 
tary life and civil life. We have already discussed 
the need of military service and have emphasized 
its importance as furnishing a foundation for leader- 
ship. It is not necessary to add much now and 
here to what has already been said about military 
life. The army and navy prepare for leadership 
and help to give us leadership. They teach obedi- 
ence without which neither sound private character 
nor sound public life is possible. They teach also 
the art of command. Citizens must both obey and 
command. Obedience and authority are essential in 
leadership. One of the good things which will come 
out of this war is the development of leadership 
through the army and navy. 

Obedience is a hateful word to misguided pseudo- 
democrats and anarchists who cannot perceive that 
without obedience any large constructive liberty is 
impossible. In the army and navy where obedience 
necessarily reaches a high pitch, we frequently find 
a development of beautiful character and warm af- 

133 



134 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

fection between officers and men. A few illustra- 
tions are given : 

Private Peat in his book says of Captain Straight : 
^^We liked him. Later, we almost worshipped 
him. ' ' 

And in speaking of Captain Straight, leading the 
boys: '^We could not have failed; we could not 
have stopped. As one of our young boys said after- 
ward: 'Follow, I'd have followed him to Hell and 
then some.' " (p. 161.) 

'^ Discipline theirs is — strict discipline, among 
men and officers. Between officer and men there is 
a marked respect and a marked good fellowship 
which never degenerates into familiarity. 

''There is love between the English officer and 
the English soldier. A love that has been proved 
many times when the commissioned man has sac- 
rificed his life to save the man of lower rank ; when 
the private has crossed the pathway of hell itself 
to save a fallen leader." (p. 76.) 

Mr. Charles W. Whitehair, sometime Y. M. C. A. 
worker with the troops in Prance, also gives similar 
testimony in these words: "We talk here at home 
about democracy. There is no democracy on earth 
like that of the trenches. It is true fellowship there. 
Social barriers do not exist among men who live 
that life. When you have gone over the top to- 
gether, there is something between you that wipes 
out social barriers. 



Leadership in Public Life 135 

''Your officers? They are your best friends. 
One of the commonest things you hear is 'Our offi- 
cers are the finest in the camp ' ! When a company 
goes over the top, a young officer is the first man 
out of the trench. It is the officer who is always 
working for the comfort of his men, looking after 
their health, trying to get them- a good billet ; and 
when the wounded come back, the officer takes his 
turn with the rest'' (at the dressing station).^ 

And notice well it is not the weak men in places 
of authority who fail to exact obedience that are 
loved and admired by those over whom they are 
placed. I well remember that the President of the 
United States, Woodrow Wilson, described one of 
the greatest law teachers of this country. Professor 
Minor, of the University of Virginia, "John B," as 
he was affectionately called by his students, under 
whom he studied, as so exacting in demanding obedi- 
ence and so successful in securing it that, if he 
ordered an examination at midnight, every man 
would be in his seat by eleven o'clock. Probably 
few law teachers have been more loved and admired. 
While this description of Professor Minor by Presi- 
dent Wilson had in it elements of humor, it also con- 
veyed a deep truth. 

We turn now to our civil life. Our public life, so 
far as control is concerned, is divided between legis- 
lation and administration. Legislation has in our 
history received chief emphasis and has had a re- 



136 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

markable, altliougli not altogether successful, de- 
velopment. It lias, at any rate, gone far aliead of 
tlie successful administration of the laws enacted.^ 
Those entrusted with legislation in our local 
political units, in our states and in our national gov- 
ernment represent the will of the people. It is their 
function to ascertain this will and to express it 
in law. They are not primarily engaged in public 
life as a profession, but they are taken out of private 
life to represent private citizens. At the same time 
it is desirable that some very strong men should 
remain indefinitely in legislative bodies, and it is 
one of the weaknesses of our arrangements that we 
do not give the strong leaders in our legislative 
bodies the same opportunity to remain in public life 
and to represent currents of opinion which many 
other countries give. Most countries allow the vot- 
ers in a district to choose their representative re- 
gardless of his place of abode, and consequently 
very strong men, like Gladstone in England, and 
such socialists as Bebel and the older Liebknecht, 
in Germany, remain in the Parliament of their re- 
spective countries indefinitely. If one constituency 
does not return a great leader, like Gladstone or 
Bebel, another constituency will. It is essential that 
for the best leadership in America like opportunities 
should exist, and in this connection proportional 
representation is suggested, as it would enable a 
section of the community having views seeking ex- 



Leadership in PuMic Life 137 

pression to secure representation in our legislative 
bodies by bunching their votes. In our cities we are 
making progress in some cases by electing repre- 
sentatives from the city at large instead of from 
wards and districts. We come back also to the short 
ballot, which has already been discussed and which 
is an indispensable condition of wise leadership in 
legislation. 

It is for the administrative branch of government, 
so little developed among us, to carry out the will 
of the people as expressed in general terms by leg- 
islation. In administration we have difficult tech- 
nical problems which grow constantly more complex 
and difficult with the passage of time and the con- 
sequent social and economic evolution. To be a 
good mayor of a city means that a man must give his 
life to the undertaking. The property interests are 
vast, and the tasks are so difficult that after a life 
time spent in municipal life a man can still learn. 
A leader in the administration of a city, whether he 
be mayor or be called by some other title, must, if 
he is to reach the highest degree of success, have a 
good deal of general knowledge in regard to educa- 
tion, sanitation, public utilities, taxation and a mul- 
titude of other things. It is probably safe to assert 
that to be a good mayor of a modern city of half a 
million inhabitants makes as great demands upon a 
man as to be president of an important railway sys- 
tem ; probably greater, if a high degree of excellence 



138 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

is to be attained because the tasks of the administra- 
tive leader of a large city are so varied. We meet 
with success in our administration just in propor- 
tion as we get men of character and of trained knowl- 
ledge in control. This means life long careers for 
men in the service of the people. We take it as a 
mere matter of course that a man cannot succeed 
in the railway service, unless he gives his life to it. 
If the railways are owned by the government and 
operated by the government, this produces no magic 
change. A condition of sound public life and good 
leadership means a sharp separation of legislation 
from administration. The world may be challenged 
to show a high degree of success in public life with- 
out at least some approximation to this separation, 
and where the highest success is achieved the sepa- 
ration is a sharp one. 

A word of caution is required at this point. We 
ought not to contemplate public life as led ex- 
clusively by professional office-holders. Private 
citizens should participate in public life and fre- 
quently occupy distinguished positions of leader- 
ship. The ^'honor-office" — the unpaid service of 
the capable and talented — ^must be emphasized to 
make administration of nation, state and city what 
we wish it to be. We in the United States have 
scarcely more than made a beginning in the sys- 
tematic enrollment of the private citizens, men and 
women, in the public administration. One of the 



Leadership in Public Life 139 

best g-overned of German cities, Berlin, a city whose 
municipal council has long been composed largely of 
progressive and independent men, had in its ad- 
ministrative services thirty years ago over two 
thousand citizens, chiefly but not exclusively, en- 
gaged in administering poor relief in cooperation 
with the paid city office-holders. In our own cities, 
we find members of Park Commissions and some 
other boards holding ^'honor-offices" and rendering 
valuable and unpaid service. A magnificent begin- 
ning has been made by the federal and state gov- 
ernments in the enlistment of private persons in all 
kinds of war service — a beginning of which we may 
well be proud and which should be followed up sys- 
tematically and extended to all our administrative 
agencies, central and local. It is not merely that we 
thus multiply our forces and utilize them more fully 
than would otherwise be possible, but we quicken the 
public service by bringing in fresh thought and sug- 
gestions and promote mutual understanding and 
good will between citizen and professional officehold- 
ers. 

But it is not only in the honor office but elsewhere 
in our public life that we should have the cooperation 
of others than those who would make public admin- 
istration their life careers. Our cabinet members 
are chosen from distinguished private citizens in 
all walks of life, and this is well as this method 
brings in fresh views and ways of looking at things. 



140 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

Also there should be opportunities elsewhere for 
bringing into the public administration men whose 
services in private life have fitted them peculiarly 
for some special work just as occasionally men in 
public life will leave their positions for private em- 
ployment for which their past careers have pre- 
pared them. It is necessary to be watchful with re- 
spect to both these movements lest the civil service 
should be a mere stepping stone to pecuniary emolu- 
ments in private service and lest also on the other 
hand, men should be brought in from the outside 
in such a way as to discourage those in the regular 
civil service. 

Vigor and freshness, initiative and invention are 
quite possible in the professional civil service. To 
one who has not looked into the matter, it is astonish- 
ing to find how easy it is to bring a magnificent 
spirit into the public service. Under the right 
leadership and encouragement, with a broad way 
open to the top, with a selection of men for merit 
and promotion on account of superiority of service, 
men in public office will work with the same spirit 
that we see in the University. Time will not be care- 
fully measured out, but lights will be burning in 
offices late at night where men are busily working, 
performing their tasks. This has been seen in the 
Capitol at Madison and just this spirit may be found 
here and there in Washington, more in one admin- 
istration than in another, all depending upon a cer- 



Leader ship in Fuhlic Life 141 

tain esprit de corps going" from the top down to the 
bottom. 

As things are in many of the Washington offices, 
the faithfulness, the long-continued fidelity and dili- 
gence of the men in the civil service are highly credit- 
able to human nature. Men who are really experts 
labor long, year after year, with small remuneration 
and without a word of recognition and no democratic 
sources of honor to stimulate them and help them 
forward to higher planes of psychic effort. Here 
and there we witness the beginning of better things. 
The work becomes more personal, men are brought 
out individually, and a wisely placed word of recog- 
nition and encouragement produces wonderful re- 
sults. 

Occasionally a pseudo-efficiency expert comes in 
to improve the public service and he accomplishes 
just about as much as the muckraker has accom- 
plished in improving private business. Undoubt- 
edly certain gross abuses have been removed or 
lessened, but he does not have the first faint glim- 
mering idea of the fact that efficiency is chiefly a 
psychic product. 

An illustration may be taken from the early days 
of the Johns Hopkins University when it was a joy 
for a young man to work in the faculty. This was 
on account of the magnificent spirit, when one was 
working with an able body of associates and under a 
chief — unlike some of his contemporaries — more in- 



142 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

terested in scliolarsliip tlian in football and wlio took 
pains to show appreciation of excellence. 

We may take the state university as a model for 
good government in several particulars. It shows 
us how we must secure good government and at the 
same time provides us with democratic means of 
getting leadership. The regents or trustees of a 
state university represent the people, and they de- 
cide along broad general lines what policies are to 
be pursued. Then through them men are appointed 
on the staff of the university faculty to carry out the 
predetermined policies. These men are appointed 
on good behavior. Generally they enter the service 
young, and they are gradually advanced in propor- 
tion to merit. 

Men who have made a career in other lines of 
work are brought in frequently from the outside as 
lecturers and occasionally are called to professor- 
ships. This brings in fresh life and sometimes a new 
way of looking at things. It must be confessed, how- 
ever, that experience has been such as not to encour- 
age the universities to extend this practice very 
greatly. 

We also have developed in the university on the 
part of students and faculty a true democracy, 
where excellence is admired as much as anywhere 
and where merit is rewarded. Not by any means 
that perfection is attained, but probably a univer- 
sity shows as near an approximation to it as can 



Leadership in Public Life 143 

anywhere be found. It is by following methods like 
those of the state university that excellence is se- 
cured in city government. Other methods lead in- 
evitably to failure sooner or later. 

The state university has ^^rnade good" in this pres- 
ent world crisis as have all our universities. Sad, 
indeed, would be our condition in this country, did 
we not have that leadership and that splendid loy- 
alty which almost without exception have been shown 
by the American university on the part alike of 
faculty and students. 

Particularly noticeable and most gratifying is 
the courage shown by those living in the university 
atmosphere. Nowhere else has there been found 
such readiness to nail one's flag to the mast and to 
go down with the ship if need be. Outside the 
university circles too frequently have we been dis- 
appointed by weak-kneed patriotism unwilling to 
take a stand against those high in power whereas 
in the university we have found in department after 
department a readiness to sign loyalty statements 
which have *^ teeth'' and which are directed against 
those high in power notwithstanding threats of in- 
vestigation and dismissal. This courage is a real 
inspiration to all who have experienced it. 

The American university then affords training 
for leadership. It imparts a spirit of loyalty and 
courage. It gives training in obedience and the 
exercise of authority. It brings out capacity for 



144 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

leadersliip on the one hand and an eager seeking 
for the leadership on the other. In the American 
university democracy finds its soul more than any- 
where else.^ 

But we have scarcely ^^ scratched the ground/^ 
so far as the work of the university is concerned. 
Large as have been the appropriations and en- 
dowments for the American university, they are not 
even half large enough to enable it to do its proper 
work. It is particularly in the matter of research 
that there has been the saddest deficiency. True it 
is that had we not enjoyed the facilities for research 
provided by our universities, the war might have 
been already lost; but, on the other hand, had the 
appropriations for research and the opportunities 
afforded those who have the capacity for it been 
what they should have been, the War perhaps might 
have been ended before this.* The appropriation 
for research results in direct benefits to the public. 
The appropriation for instruction accrues more nar- 
rowly to the benefit of those who receive the in- 
struction, although here there is an ample return for 
all expenditures in the diffusion of benefits through 
a highly trained citizenship of those who enjoy a 
university training. But researches are directly 
and immediately for the benefit of society as a 
whole. 

Anyone who has doubt about the statements in 
the foregoing paragraph would do well to read two 



Leadership in PuMic Life 145 

illuminating articles that appeared in the American 
Review of Reviews for July, 1918. The first en- 
titled ''The Long Arm of Learning : How the 'Land- 
Grant Colleges' are Backing Uncle Sam" is by B. E. 
Powell; the second entitled ''The War Work of the 
University of Wisconsin" is by President Charles 
E. Van Hise. The following quotations are taken 
from these articles : 

"A nation at war, without an adequate army of 
scientists to back it up, is between the deep sea and 
that best friend of William the Mistaken. A soldier 
can be made in two years ; it takes twenty to make 
a scientist. 

"Fortunately for us of the United States, we 
have been producing, for a reason that will appear 
later, scientists upon rather a large scale for the 
past half-century. True, our comfortable egotism 
has kept us from utilizing them as fully as we might ; 
it has been among our traditions that 'made in Ger- 
many' plainly stamped upon the occiput was the 
hallmark of your genuine scientist. 

' ' Then came April 6, 1917. The United States had 
her choice between producing her own scientists and 
having her head blown off by the nation that had 
been doing it for her. To give a single instance- 
in the business of being at war, dimethyl-gloxine, a 
rare and unusual chemical, an indispensable reagent 
for analytical work with nickel-steels, is a vital 
necessity. The United States always had depended 



146 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

upon Germany for lier supply. It would come from 
there no more. Quietly university scientists busied 
themselves with the problem and now the chemical 
laboratory of the University of Illinois alone pro- 
duces a sufficient supply to fill the needs of the en- 
tire country. . . . 

^'Let me tell you of a highly significant group 
of services along physical, chemical and engineering 
lines : 

^^ Professor Max Mason, of the department of 
physics of the University of Wisconsin, is the in- 
ventor of a submarine detector. It was tried out on 
peaceful Lake Mendota. Experts witnessed the 
trial and carried Mason and his co-workers off to 
"Washington. Word now comes from those in au- 
thority that the device is being installed on vessels 
and that high hopes of it are entertained. 

^'At Illinois recent air-propeller experiments by 
Professor Morgan Brooks, of the Department of 
Electrical Engineering, indicate that serious errors 
exist in the screw theory of air propellers. A new 
type of steel air propeller shows a greatly increased 
thrust for the same operating conditions. 

'' Professor Eichard C. Tolman, of the Depart- 
ment of Chemistry, University of Illinois, is chemi- 
cal-expert-at-large in the Ordnance Department. 
The work is under the general supervision of the 
National Eesearch Council, which is a committee of 
the Council of National Defense. Under his direc- 



Leadership in Public Life 147 

tion tests are in progress on the small-arms am- 
munition. . . . 

*^From Wisconsin a professor of chemistry, J. H. 
Mathews, was chosen to investigate poison gases. 
He served four months abroad as chemical liaison 
officer with the British armies, securing information 
on the German poison gases. His laboratory was 
the front-line trench and storm-shelled ^No Man's 
Land.' He returned to the States with the data he 
had accumulated to work with other chemists on 
the poison-gas problem. 

^'Consider the graphite crucible; for the business 
of war demands heavily of metals. Graphite cruci- 
bles are a necessity in all metallurgy from steels to 
gold. The clay used in the manufacture of these 
crucibles must be of high grade and possessed of 
special properties. Before the war this clay came 
from a particular locality in Germany, where it 
seemed to have been planted expressly for the pur- 
pose of strengthening the hold of the Kaiser and 
his best friend upon the world. When the clay was 
no longer available, therefore, must America do 
without graphite crucibles! There was a period of 
consternation, then university-trained scientists set 
to work with American clays and produced graphite 
crucibles not merely equal but actually superior to 
those made in Germany. 

^^You remember how we despaired over the dye 
situation? The ladies were all going to have to 



148 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

wear white and give the boys white neckties for 
Christmas gifts. A walk through any large de- 
partment store at present will make you wonder if 
the rainbow has offered us its services to help win 
the war, so varied and gorgeous are the colors. 

*'The truth is our unpreparedness in the dye sit- 
uation was, four years ago, rather appalling. At 
that time the firms engaged in the manufacture of 
dyes numbered about six, and these largely in con- 
nection with importation houses. Annually more 
than $10,000,000 went over seas for dyes. Now we 
have not twice six nor ten times six, corporations 
engaged in the manufacture of dyes, but one hundred 
and thirty ! In the first ten months of 1917 our ex- 
portation of dyes brought us in $13,500,000, Great 
Britain being our largest customer.'^ (Taken from 
Mr. Powell's article.) 

^'The research work of the university relating to 
the war has included many fields, psychology, eco- 
nomics, history, industry, medicine, engineering, 
foods, gas, aerial work, and the submarine. Space 
does not permit a summary of it. As illustrations, 
there may be mentioned the gas and submarine 
work. 

''Gas Defense. The gas defense work involves 
investigations of gas warfare abroad, the methods of 
manufacture of gases in quantity to be used in at- 
tack, the physiological effects of the gases, and the 
remedies for them, and gas mask protection. Fif- 



Leadership in Fublic Life 149 

teen members of the faculty are devoting themselves 
to different aspects of these problems. Important 
results have been obtained. 

^'Submarines. One of the earliest problems to be 
taken up by the University was that of submarine 
detection. This problem was attacked because of 
the availability of a large lake beside the university 
campus. It would be improper at this time to en- 
ter into details, but a general announcement has 
been made by the War Department which warrants 
the statement that a group of men from the Univer- 
sity of Wisconsin has worked out an accepted sub- 
marine device. This device is being manufactured 
on a large scale and being installed upon the boats 
of the Navy as rapidly as possible. The device con- 
stitutes one of the essential elements in detecting the 
submarine and in following it until it is destroyed. 
While this work was first carried on at the Univer- 
sity, it was later made a Navy enterprise, the same 
men, however, continuing the work, some at a naval 
station and some at Madison. In the work eight men 
have participated." ^ (From President Van Hise's 
article. ) 

But we need now in our own country in connec- 
tion with state universities and other schools spe- 
cial training schools for public service. Our young 
men have gone out from the universities and have 
had to serve apprenticeships in important positions, 
whereas the apprenticeship should have been served 



150 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

earlier in tlieir careers. The demand for men with 
training has been so great as to lead to appointment 
with inadequate training. We should then have 
schools for training for public service, and some of 
these schools should be entirely separate and dis- 
tinct, and some should be parts of other educational 
institutions. From the high school on the training 
for public service should be a feature of our educa- 
tional institutions. The training for citizenship 
should be for all; the training for public service 
should be for those who desire this kind of a career. 
There should be a broad avenue open for all who 
seek public service. 

We have built up recently in our public life a series 
of commissions. These commissions have been ob- 
jected to by those who do not understand the na- 
ture of our economic civilization. They are bound 
to grow in city, state and nation, because they cor- 
respond to our real needs, and true progress con- 
sists in improving them rather than in obstructing 
them. They perform functions which neither the 
courts nor legislative bodies can perform. They 
pass upon complex questions which may be reviewed 
by the courts. They carry out the will of the legisla- 
ture expressed in general terms because it is only 
short brief laws expressed in general terms which 
are able to meet the complexities of our complex 
economic life and enable us to apply general prin- 
ciples to concrete cases in their infinite complexity. 



Leadership in Public Life 151 

After the War we must ' ^ carry on ' ' and gather the 
fruits of the splendid accumulation of energy which 
has been engendered during the War. We want to 
make the world a better place to live in, and this im- 
plies that we are led on by high ideals in business, 
in government, in short, in all our life spheres. But 
these ideals must be ideals radically different from 
the Bolshevik ideals which are now becoming so 
current. They must be ideals of excellence in leader- 
ship and of a whole made up of parts united in vari- 
ous ranks of service in accordance with capacity, 
each rank occupying an honorable position, those in 
the higher places filled with the responsibility of 
leadership, and all showing respect and esteem for 
capacity, all from top to bottom cultivating that 
social cement of mutual loyalty which makes work- 
ing together a joy. That is a poor society, indeed, in 
which those in authority are not honored, and in 
which, on the other hand, those in authority are not 
ready to sacrifice themselves to the uttermost for 
those over whom they exercise authority, being will- 
ing if need be, to lay down their lives in the common 
service. 

Public life will not be satisfactory until the at- 
titude of the American people toward public life is 
changed in several particulars. Sometimes it seems 
almost as if we were in the stone age so far as the 
methods of good government and the processes of 
leadership are concerned. We find things going 



152 . The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

wrong, and we think it possible to make tliem better 
by simple inhibitions. We say, '^ Don't do this" and 
''Don't do that." We introduce mechanical tests of 
efficiency and make the time-clock play a great role. 
Our legislation as well as our administration is nega- 
tive and repressive whereas both should be construc- 
tive and persuasive. We talk glibly about efficiency 
but fail to grasp the deeper underlying causes of ex- 
cellence in administration, which are psychical. 

Our pseudo-efficiency expert comes to Washing- 
ton and finds a waste in stationery. There is no 
doubt that this is a bad condition of things and 
reprehensible. Measures of control are introduced, 
however, which may make it so difficult to secure a 
supply of lead pencils that a man will waste twenty 
cents ' worth of time to secure ten cents ' worth of sup- 
plies. If this is not literally an exact description, 
it does not come far from the facts in many cases. 
The efficiency expert thinks the desks in a big office 
are not properly placed and rearranges them with 
a loss of efficiency because he has not understood 
all the implications of the situation as he found 
it. There may be a waste of telephone service, and 
to correct this the man at the head of an impor- 
tant division in a great department is compelled to 
go outside the office if he wants to telephone to his 
wife instead of using the telephone which is at his 
hand. In this and many other ways educated men 
in responsible positions are humiliated, not inten- 



Leadership in Fiihlic Life 153 

tionally, of course, but because those who introduced 
the present arrangements have not understood the 
real motives which actuate men and secure results. 

Oiie of the great educational leaders of the coun- 
try, the late President D. C. Gilman, had a phrase 
which explained in a large measure the wonderful 
success that he achieved as president of the Johns 
Hopkins University. This phrase was ' ' Give a man 
scope." If we want things done as we do in this 
progressive age in which we are passing from a 
passive to an active policy of government, we must 
give men scope in our public life as well as in our 
private life, remembering that if we fence men so 
about that they cannot do anything wrong, not only 
do we take the heart out of them, but we put them 
in such a position that with the best will they can- 
not do any good thing that really counts. Large 
constructive effort becomes impossible, and men 
necessarily fall into a routine, while red tape is 
developing apace. 

We come again to the need of true leaders. A 
true leader in public life as well as in private life 
will always be on the lookout for excellence and he 
will seek to give it recognition and reward. A 
pecuniary reward is not the chief thing. A laurel 
wreath may prove a greater stimulus in social serv- 
ice than a monetary reward of thousands of dollars. 
It is easy to laugh at titles, but they have a tre- 
mendous power when wisely bestowed in recognition 



154 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

of meritorious performance. After all, when we 
think about it and observe what goes on in our 
American life, can we say that there is any country 
where titles are more appreciated than in the United 
States ? Have we not here something to take hold of 
and use wisely? This is not the place for an ampli- 
fication of this idea, but it is thrown out by way of 
suggestion. 

We find the best situation in this country prob- 
ably in the American university so far as our pub- 
lic life is concerned, but some great private institu- 
tions possibly may excel the university in the spirit 
of administration. The president of a university 
is the recognized leader in his institution and fre- 
quently he has done admirable work. The ideal 
president knows his faculty; he understands their 
situation ; he is alert to throw opportunities in their 
way and to remove obstacles, to speak a word of 
encouragement now and then. He thinks not of 
his own performance so much as of the performance 
of his faculty. The university also bestows degrees 
to encourage scholarship and sometimes also in 
recognition of excellence in the administration of 
great businesses. Possibly under our American con- 
ditions the university will become the chief demo- 
cratic source of honor, but it must not be the sole 
source of honor. Still less must the state, either as 
state or in its institutions, be ever allowed to become 
the exclusive source of honor. Various sources of 



Leadership in Public Life 155 

honor are now in the process of development. We 
have the Nobel prizes the bestowal of which means 
high honor for scholars as well as very considerable 
pecuniary emolument. Mr. Andrew Carnegie's in- 
stitution which confers medals on heroes may be 
mentioned in this connection. Public libraries are 
possible sources of community leadership and recog- 
nition. 

Among the slight beginnings which deserve praise, 
it may be proper to mention that the University of 
Wisconsin awards certificates to farmers who have 
done meritorious work in agriculture, and these 
diplomas, which, are without pecuniary value and 
practically costless, are highly prized and justly so. 
They are recognition of excellence proceeding from 
a democratic source and serve as a stimulus. 
• Professor E. A. Eoss has discussed in his article, 
''The Organization of Effort'' {The American 
Journal of Sociology, July, 1916), the principles 
involved in the bestowal of honor. The following is 
quoted from this highly suggestive article : 

''Since honor is coveted as well as money, honor 
should be as carefully graduated and as punctually 
paid. A non-discriminating treatment of those on 
different rungs of the organization ladder flings 
away a precious means of stimulation. In order to 
whet the eagerness to earn advancement, something, 
however slight, should be used to distinguish men of 
each grade from those below. It may be a uniform, 



156 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

a stripe, a band of gold braid, a cap, or a button. 
It may be the right of precedence, of dining at a 
reserved table, entering by a special door, sitting 
on a higher seat, or having one's desk behind a 
railing or on a raised floor. It may be the privilege 
of sitting in the presence of the top man, of being 
addressed as ^^Mr.," or ^^Sir," of receiving a cer- 
tain salute, or of donning a certain robe. Whatever 
be the mark of honor, it should be patent without 
being conspicuous, its value should be symbolic 
rather than intrinsic, it should be certain to him 
who is entitled to it, and it should be consistently 
withheld from all others." 



CHAPTER XI 

SIX LAMPS OF SOCIAL PKOGKESS 

The French Eepublic has adopted as its motto, Lib- 
erty, Equality and Fraternity. These are words 
that come down from the French Revolution, and 
they have had a molding force in democratic thought 
in all Western civilization. They have been both 
a help and a hindrance to the development of democ- 
racy and progress. 

We notice historically that sometimes more empha- 
sis is laid upon one of the three words than upon 
others. There have been and are even now fanatical 
adherents of equality. The socialist Baboeuf illus- 
trates one extreme in the various views of equality. 
Equality seems to him to be a good in itself. He 
wants all to fare alike and to dress alike, scarcely 
allowing a difference in dress on account of sex. 
He formed a conspiracy of his adherents who called 
themselves the '^Equals." Baboeuf stated his lead- 
ing idea in these words: — ^'The aim of society is 
the happiness of all and happiness consists in equal- 
ity.'' This idea of equality finds expression in end- 
less repetition. The harmony of social and economic 
society, Baboeuf thought, would be broken if there 

157 



158 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

were even one man in the world richer or more 
powerful than his fellows. His adherents were will- 
ing to do away with all historical achievements and 
to sweep the decks clear, so to speak, to make room 
for equality. For the sake of equality they were 
willing to abolish all of the arts. For the sake of 
equality they were willing to have absolute govern- 
ment. While they did consent reluctantly to allow 
certain distinctions in dress on account of age and 
sex, they wanted that all should have the same kind 
of food and should be educated alike, taking away 
children from the family for the sake of equality. 

It is needless to speak about the dreariness of life 
under a scheme like Baboeuf's. It should be no- 
ticed, however, that extreme emphasis upon equality 
means a sacrifice of all free movement, indeed, of 
the entire concept of liberty itself. Just as soon 
as the idea of equality is pushed too far forward, 
liberty begins to recede into the background, and 
we are bound to have excesses like those of the 
French Eevolution in the eighteenth century and 
of the Bolsheviki in the twentieth. 

Equality and fraternity do not harmonize well, 
although at first blush one might suppose that they 
would. Equality as a social goal means the suppres- 
sion and oppression of those naturally superior and 
consequently it entails bitter social antagonisms. 
It means diminished wealth as we see in Eussia 
under the rule of the Bolsheviki and it means the 



Six Lamps of Social Progress 159 

suppression of all higher social products. Art and 
religion are both thrown overboard. 

Knowing as we do that men are naturally and 
forever unequal and growingly unequal with the de- 
velopment of civilization, let us try to formulate cer- 
tain ideas in words which may serve as illuminat- 
ing lights on the pathway of social progress. 
Among these watchwords we may place unity in 
diversity. We have in these three words a high 
goal. If we can harmoniously unite our diverse 
capacities and gifts into one whole, we may have a 
rich and glorious civilization. 

The following quotation from an article by Mrs. 
A. Burnett-Smith, ''An Englishwoman's Message,'' 
gives a beautiful illustration of unity in diversity 
taken from recent English life : 

''We have a million and a half women working in 
our munition factories today, — all kinds, from the 
highest to the lowest; peers' daughters, and daugh- 
ters of cabinet ministers, of professional men, of 
rich merchants, — all working side by side twelve 
hours a day, with brief intervals for meals, living 
together in little villages, which have had to be 
built close to the factories, in order to solve the 
housing problem. They are not segregated, but 
live the communal life, side by side, sharing the 
family life in dining-rooms, recreation rooms, in all 
respects living as one family; and it has had a won- 
derful effect on them all. The upper-class women 



160 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

have learned something from their working sisters. 
They have gained a broader outlook, a more candid 
sincerity, and a great many other things which are 
going to be of much value. The same thing holds 
good of the other side. They have learned refine- 
ment of speech and behavior. In fact, they have 
come to understand each other, and ignorance is 
the cause of so much sorrow and misunderstanding 
that we welcome all this wonderful new fusion in 
our national life. Please God, when the anguish of 
these days is over, it is going to be a splendid 
factor in our reconstruction. ' ' ^ 

The second lamp of social progress is the idea of 
service, broadly considered. Service includes all 
circles ; it begins with the individual, goes on to the 
family, the community, the state, and finally em- 
braces mankind. This idea stands in sharp antagon- 
ism to the eighteenth century doctrine of self-inter- 
est as an adequate basis of individual and national 
conduct. The individual finds his own interest in 
the interest of all; he strives to perfect himself as 
an instrument of progress and in workmanship ac- 
cording to capacity as social service, true individual- 
ity will be developed. 

Leadership of the wise and good naturally fol- 
lows from a recognition of the inequalities among 
men with respect to their powers. In our complex 
society this leadership is essential. Society which 
is without good leadership must perish in the conflict 



Six Lamps of Social Progress 161 

of nations, and by the conflict of nations here is not 
meant simply the struggle in arms, but the economic 
struggle of commerce and industry.^ 

President Eliot has given us a goal of education 
based upon a recognition of the ideas which we have 
just been trying to develop. 

^^ Democratic education should also inculcate on 
every child the essential unity of a democratic com- 
munity, in spite of the endless diversities of func- 
tion, capacity, and achievement among the individ- 
uals who compose the community . . . ; for unity is 
attainable, while equality of condition is unnatural 
and unattainable.^ . . . Unity in freedom is the so- 
cial goal of democracy, the supreme good of all ranks 
of society, of the highest no less than of the low- 
est."^ 

We now have in our programme for progress sev- 
eral ideas : First, is unity in diversity, second, and 
closely connected with this, is the idea of develop- 
ment of individuality in social service, third, the 
leadership of the wise and the good.^ Let us now 
pass on to another word which shall be an illuminat- 
ing light on our pathway, namely, fourth, liberty. 
By liberty we mean freedom to act under the law. 
We mean not mere negation of restriction, but we 
mean opportunity for the development and expan- 
sion of all one's faculties. This liberty must be 
mutual and, therefore, finds its metes and bounds 
at an increasing number of points. Yet there is a 



162 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

constant growth of true liberty in tlie positive con- 
structive sense with every step forward in social 
progress. 

The fifth idea is equality of opportunity and this 
illuminates with increasing brilliance social prog- 
ress. Equality of opportunity is the grand goal 
of American progress and toward it we struggle re- 
sistlessly. Sometimes we make mistakes and get 
off on by-ways, but we always keep before us the 
aim. The pathway of progress is toward the lamp, 
equality of opportunity, but it is far from being a 
straight one. We are frequently misled more or 
less, but the light shines on and we ever struggle 
toward it. First in the eighteenth century the path 
turned toward the doctrine of equality as fact. 
Later as we perceived that the great essential fact 
is inequality of capacities, it led towards this doc- 
trine, recognizing that equality of opportunity can 
be secured only through unequal treatment of un- 
equals. Opportunity has always to be measured in 
terms of our faculties. Those who have superior 
faculties have resting upon them burdens of service 
to those of smaller gifts and slenderer resources. 
They have the duty of leadership. 

Now sixth and last of all we come to the lamp, 
fraternity. This shines ever on. It always has 
been and always must be the grand culmination of 
social progress. 

How many lamps have we then? We have the 



Six Lamps of Social Progress 163 

lamp, unity in diversity; the lamp, service ; the lamp, 
leadership by the wise and good ; the lamp, liberty ; 
the lamp, equality of opportunity; and the lamp, 
fraternity. These are six lamps which illuminate 
ever the pathway of social progress. 



APPENDIX 

THE DANGER OF ILLUSIONS 
By Edward D. Jones 

Because of my interest in the psychic basis of efficiency, 
a portion of j^our discussion has appealed to me as an effort 
to dissipate certain illusions or deeply-rooted misconcep- 
tions from the public mind, and so to break down barriers 
which stand in the way of progress. 

Conduct is a response to a situation. Efficient conduct 
is a correct or adequate response. Why is it, often, so 
hard to get an individual, or a group of individuals, to 
make an adequate adjustment to a situation ? The superior 
mind may see the situation as simple in itself. The agen- 
cies needed to cope with it — to improve it — may likewise be 
very simple. They may be well known, well tried means, 
which are commonplace agencies of science. And still 
some men, or some groups of men, cannot be made to 
see what appears to be so easy. Therefore, we sometimes 
think that the root of trouble is not in the problem per se, 
but in the attitude of people toward it. 

In what does this mental blockade consist ? Robert 
Louis Stevenson once said that the ideal mind was fluent, 
sensitive, and teachable. What prevents all minds from 
being so ? It seems to me that it is this thing which I call 
' ' illusion. ' ' These are firmly held judgments or prepercep- 
tions, which are called up in association with other con- 
cepts, according to the thought-paths which each one has 
established by habit in his own mind. 

164 



Appendix 165 

An individual illusion may be specific, and so little inter- 
laced with other ideas, that it is not often involved as a 
source of practical error. This is illustrated by the case 
of a psychopathic patient of whom I heard at Baltimore. 
He was rational on most subjects, but when asked from 
time to time by the physicians, how he stood on the Kocke- 
f eller matter, he would insist that he was the son of John 
D. Rockefeller. This illusion did not destroy the man's 
power of adequate adjustment to most of the situations of 
ordinary life. 

On the other hand, the illusion may be fundamental, 
that IS to say, it may be one which is compounded in the 
formation of an entire class of judgments, and which enters, 
perhaps, as a component part into a very wide range of 
thinking processes. Such is the illusion of the paranoiac, 
as to his personal superiority and importance; or the illu- 
sion of inferiority, from which some persons suffer, and 
which breeds timidity; or the illusion of persecution, lead- 
ing to angry responses, solitude, and sulkiness. Sometimes 
these illusions are merely wrong judgments rather persist- 
ently held; but they may be the result of a ''balancing 
process" resulting from "repressed complex," and so be 
extremely fixed and definitely irrational. 

Just as there are no 100 per cent, men with reference 
to physical health (at least in the opinion of the Life 
Extension Institute) so there are practically no minds free 
from disturbance in some domain of thinking, by reason of 
stubborn errors of conception, which hamper their ability 
to see things as they are, or which warp the path of reason- 
ing out of line with sound judgment. 

Let us illustrate the effect of these matters upon policy. 
If in an industrial plant the management sees an oppor- 
tunity to make some desirable change such, let us say, as 
the installation of an employment manager and the con- 



166 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

centration of the service records of employees in one 
office, the chief difficulty may not consist in finding the 
proper system for such an office, or even in finding a fairly 
adequate man for the position, but it may be almost en- 
tirely in bringing the officers and men to the proper point 
of view with reference to the project. Some persons will 
be suspicious of the generosity of the management; others 
of over-acute mind will consider the proposal a ''blind," 
and will try to decipher the real hidden plan; still others, 
smarting from fancied slights, will be against the idea to 
get even ; others, having formed a derogatory opinion of 
their associates, will judge that while such a plan might 
work elsewhere it cannot succeed with the backward ad- 
ministration in power. There will be the persons who mag- 
nify some small difficulty ; and there will be those who know- 
ing they are being discriminated against, are planning to 
get out, and therefore are indifferent. 

To make the plan work, therefore, it becomes necessary 
to take a variety of apparently disconnected preliminary 
steps, to melt and dissolve away, out of the minds of the 
force, these various illusions. It may be necessary to lay 
the plan aside until, by repeated generous acts the doubt- 
ing ones are convinced of the fairness of the management, 
until repeated explanations satisfy the skeptical, until con- 
stant friendliness wins the sensitive, or until, by the doing 
of some simple thing, which exercises all upon a neutral 
basis in some form of united action, there is generated an 
infection or contagion of friendliness and enthusiasm, which 
sweeps the barriers away and produces harmony of mood. 
When the mental barriers are once gone, if the plan has 
been justly conceived, and does what is expected of it 
specifically, the individuals who once opposed it will soon 
look back with astonishment at their previous lack of faith. 
Their former mood will no longer be comprehensible to 



Appendix 167 

them. They will say, ''I do not see how I misunderstood 
the thing as I did." 

The leadership of a small group of men consists very 
largely in the process of producing this harmony of mood. 
The first stepy in it is to attain discipline, the second, a delight 
in the action or esprit, and finally to hold the individual 
to the plan by the deepest moral convictions or to attain 
morale. The long progress of devoted service of the leader 
by which the mood for great things is produced in the ranks 
is thus briefly described in Andrews' '' Fundamentals of 
Military Service." The author says, ''History records 
many daring deeds where an intrepid leader has led his 
men to victory against seemingly overwhelming odds, and 
all credit is given to his courage. A mistake. There may 
be hundreds who would have dared lead the charge, but 
their men were not prepared. Credit must be given not 
alone to courage, but even more to the intelligent leadership 
that had brought the men to this opportunity prepared to 
meet it successfully ; confident in the ability of their leader, 
disciplined, and buoyed up by esprit, in the best possible 
condition of mind and body through their leader's constant 
exercise of vigilance for their daily welfare on the march 
and in the camp. The making of the heroic leader who will 
win laurels on the battlefield begins surely in the drill hall 
at home, and follows throughout the conduct of each day's 
work in camp and on campaign. He must be not only a dis- 
ciplinarian and a psychologist, but something of a doctor, 
a cook, a tailor, saddler and cobbler, a veterinarian and a 
blacksmith. He will follow up his men like children, and 
see that they are properly clothed, fed, rested, entertained, 
kept in health and spirits, giving freely of his vitality that 
he may reasonably demand tremendous exertions from them 
when the opportunity offers." 

It seems to me that a disciplined public opinion is some- 



168 The World War and Leadership in a Democracy 

what similarly constituted. While individual illusions can- 
cel themselves out in the mass, the energy of each is the pro- 
pulsive force minus the retarding forces, and the energy of 
the mass is the sum of the net energy of the individuals. 
And then there is that large class of general concepts which 
exerts a special influence upon judgments of public policy. 
Thus we may distinguish the idea ''democratic/' danger- 
ously vague in its outlines, and perceive the harm which 
may be done by attaching the stigma "it is undemocratic" 
to a plan which simply aims to make use of a person of 
superior talent or experience. We remember the influence 
exerted for years by the conception "politics are corrupt," 
which deterred many young men from entering the public 
service. The concept "freedom of competition" often 
blocks intelligent plans for dealing with natural monopolies. 
And so, as j^ou have shown in your paper, broad concepts 
like "freedom" and "equality" have to be interpreted 
with the utmost clearness and patience again and again. 
A bad root conception of any of these fundamental catego- 
ries may act like a defective lens distorting a broad sweep 
of the mental scenery of our lives. 

We are now in conflict with a body of people who have 
long been skillfully led, until an amazing state of discipline 
has been developed to a body of ideas which in many aspects 
appeals to us as loathsome. How has this been done ? By 
observing the principles of leadership. Andrews speaks of 
the military leader as a doctor, cook, and tailor. The 
rulers of Germany, in their factory acts, their state insur- 
ance and pension system, etc., have cared for the common 
man until his confidence has been won. They have de- 
stroyed concepts prejudicial to national solidarity ; but, alas, 
have built up illusions which make them dangerous in the 
family of nations. We have set for ourselves not only the 
more diflicult task of attaining discipline and yet preserv- 



Appendix 169 

ing" large individual liberty and maintaining a democratic 
distribution of ultimate political power, but the task of har- 
monzing our national aspirations with the general welfare 
of the human race. For so great a purpose we ought the 
more devotedly to study and practice the art of leadership, 
to banish from among us every misconception which might 
divide our ranks, and fully and clearly to bring out and 
propagate among ourselves the beauties of the ideals for 
which we stand, so that our devotion shall be in the same 
measure as their perfection. 



NOTES AND EEFEEENCES 

Chapter II — Why We are at War 

1. P. 20. Out of Their Mouths, D. Appleton & Co. (1917) 
p. 4. 

2. P. 20. "Take heed that ye be counted among'st the blessed, 
who show declining England, corrupt Belgium, licentious France, 
uncouth Russia, the unconquerable youthful power and manhood 
of the German people in a manner never to be forgotten. . . . 
Brethren, make an end of this generation of vipers with German 
blows and German thrusts." Pastor J. Rump, Kriegshetstunden 
1914 II, 75. In Conquest d Kultur, January, 1918, issued by U. 
S. Committee on Public Information, p. 15. 

"The European conspiracy has woven around us a web of lies 
and slander. As for us we are truthful, our characteristics are 
humanity, gentleness, conscientiousness, the virtues of Christ. In 
a world of wickedness we represent love, and God is with us." 
(Adolf Larson, Professor of Philosophy, University of Berlin, in 
letters to a friend. See Bemadotte Schmitt, England and Ger- 
many, 1916, pp. 93-94. {Conquest & Kultur, p. 17.) 

3. P. 21. Taken from the Daily News of Chicago, March 
26, 1918. 

4. P. 22. Charles Seymour in his Diplomatic Background of 
the War 1870-1914 says, p. 99 : "Such (belligerent) sentiments 
are natural to Prussians, who have been men of war since the 
beginning of their history. They were enforced by the lessons 
of the past : in no country has military strength or weakness 
played so important a part in determining national history as in 
Prussia. It was through brute force that Prussia was first built 
up in the days of the Great Elector and Frederick the Great; to 
her military weakness Prussia owed her bitter humiliation by 
Napoleon in 1807; to her military force again, in the time of 
Bismarck, both Prussia and Germany owed their glory, and, as 
Germans believe, their subsequent prosperity." 

171 



172 Nates and References 

5. P. 25. See the discussion of the origin of the concept, 
the gentleman in chivalry in Professor E. D. Jones' book, The 
Business Administrator , pp. 188-193. The concept comes from 
that of the chivalrous knight. Chivalry affected chiefly Prance 
and England. As chivalry prevailed from the end of the tenth 
century to the Renaissance, most of Germany was in too back- 
ward a condition to take a permanent cultural influence. In 
Italy and Spain the concept of knighthood was so strongly in- 
fluenced by the courtly conception of cunning and strategy that 
a person of gTeater sinuosity and less frankness and fairness 
became the ideal. 

To what Professor Jones has said, it may be added that truth, 
an attribute of the gentleman, is less valued in Germany than in 
English speaking countries. As long ago as 1874 Professor James 
Morgan Hart in his book German Universities called attention to 
this weakness in the German character. A German mother will 
say to her child, "0, you little liar," and does not imply serious 
reprobation thereby, and Professor Hart said that if you called 
a German student a liar, he might take it calmly, but if you called 
him a blockhead, he would challenge you to fight a duel. All this 
has been amply exemplified during the present war. It was the 
German socialist Lassalle who said of the lie that it was one of the 
Great European Powers ! It was natural enough that he should 
have said it. 

Professor Gilbert Murray in his Preface to Prince Lichnowsky's 
pamphlet. My Mission to London^ recognizes that the lie is one 
of the great powers of Europe. He uses these words: "Never 
perhaps in history has the world seen so great an exhibition, as 
at the outbreak of this war, of the murderous and corrupting 
power of the organized lie. All Germany outside the govern- 
mental circles was induced to believe that the war was a treacher- 
ous attack, plotted in the dark by 'revengeful France, barbaric 
Russia, and envious England,' against the innocent and peace- 
lovuig Fatherland." On the other hand. Prince Lichnowsky 
himself says that "prevarication is altogether foreign to English 
nature." My Mission to London (George H. Doran Company), 
p. 22. 

6. P. 27. Jung-Deutschland, the official organ of Young 
Germany written for young boys, in October, 1913, had the 
following : 

"War is the noblest and holiest expression of human activity. 



Notes and References 173 

For us, too, the glad, great hour of battle will strike. Still and 
deep in the German heart must live the joy of battle and the 
longing for it. Let us ridicule to the utmost the old women in 
breeches who fear war and deplore it as cruel and revolting. No : 
war is beautiful. Its august sublimity elevates the human heart 
beyond the earthly and the common. In the cloud palace above 
sit the heroes, Frederick the Great, and Blilcher, and all the men 
of action — the Great Emperor, Moltke, Roon, Bismarck, are there 
as well, but not the old women who would take away our joy in 
war. When here on earth a battle is won by German arms and 
the faithful dead ascend to heaven, a Potsdam lance corporal will 
call the guard to the door, and 'Old Fritz,' springing from his 
golden throne, will give the command to present arms. That is 
the heaven of Young Germany." Conquest & Kultur, p. 33. 

7. P. 32. When Blood is Their Argument, by Ford Madox 
Hueffer (Hodder & Stoughton, 1915), p. 271. 

It has recently been said that the "real measure of Germany's 
offense . . . consists 'in her ingrained determination not to permit 
a free meeting of minds between people and people.' " The illus- 
trations given in the text show how early and deliberately Germany 
began her measures of separation which prevented this free meet- 
ing of minds. {The New Republic, July 6, 1918. See article en- 
titled "Germany's Ultimate Offense," page 276, and the communi- 
cation, "The Healing of England," pages 292-293.) 

8. P. 34. Walter E, Weyl says in American World Policies, 
pp. 116-120, that the revolt of France, Switzerland, Holland, 
Belgium, and Italy against German trade before the war, was 
because it was carried on as a hostile, national, systematic cam- 
paign. It included such practices as sudden price reductions to 
kill out domestic industries, dumping, spies to steal names and 
trade methods, export not only of goods but of men, such as 
clerks and chemists, German banks backing German concerns, 
an elaborate information system of persons, firms, credits, con- 
tracts, etc., the union of German firms into cartels for fighting 
purposes, predatory competition or low prices where there was 
competition recouped by high prices where there was not, rail- 
ways aiding the export movement, state aid of everything, 
and the whole thing worked as a trained army, advancing the 
interests of German persons and firms and German trade ex- 
clusively. 



174 Nates and References 



Chapter III — The Forces of Darkness Gain the Upper Hand 

1. P. 36. After Bluntsclili, German ideas as to international 
law departed from tlie moral principles of Kant, and became 
brutalized by the spreading doctrines of Nietzsche and Treitschke 
and Bismarck. Compare Charles Seymour, The Diplomatic 
Background of the War, New Haven, 1916, pp. 102-103. 

2. P. 41. The opinion of Maximilian Harden, editor of the 
Zukunft, as to the causes of the war: 

"Not as weak-willed blunderers have we undertaken the fearful 
risk of this war. We wanted it; because we had to wish it and 
could wish it. May the Teuton devil throttle those whiners whose 
pleas for excuses make us ludicrous in these hours of lofty experi- 
ence. We do not stand, and shall not place ourselves, before the 
court of Europe. . . . Germany strikes. If it conquers new 
realms for its genius, the priesthood of all the gods will sing 
songs of praise to the good war. . . . We are waging this war not 
in order to punish those who have sinned, nor in order to free 
enslaved peoples, and thereafter to comfort ourselves with the 
unselfish and useless consciousness of our own righteousness. We 
wage it from the lofty point of view and with the conviction that 
German}^, as a result of her achievements, and in proportion to 
them, is justified in asking, and must obtain, wider room on earth 
for development and for working out the possibilities that are in 
her. The powers from whom she forced her ascendancy, in spite 
of themselves, still live, and some of them have recovered from 
the weakening she gave them. . . . Now strikes the hour for Ger- 
many's rising power." (Article by Harden translated in the New 
York Times, December 6, 1914. Also in New York Times Current 
History, III, p. 130.) From "Annotations" accompanying the 
President's Flag Day Address, pp. 17-18 in a pamphlet issued by 
the Committee on Public Information, September 15, 1917. 

3. P. 41. Harden's father's name was Wittkowski. He was 
a Polish Jew. 

For an account of the change in German popular sentiment, and 
the swinging of the Socialists into line see Charles Seymour, The 
Diplomatic Background of the War, New Haven, 1916, p. 113. 

4. P. 42. "It is only by relying on our good German sword 
that we can hope to conquer that place in the sun which rightly 
belongs to us, and which the world does not seem willing to ac- 
cord us . . . till the world comes to an end^ the ultimate decision 



Notes and References 175 

must rest with tlie sword." (Extract from the Crown Prince's 
introduction to Germany in Arms, issued in 1913.) From "An- 
notations" accompanying the President's Flag" Day Address, p. 
14 in a pamphlet issued by the Committee on Public Informa- 
tion. 

5. P. 42. "In the good old times it happened that a strong 
people thrust a weak one out of its ancestral abode by wars of 
extermination. To-day such deeds of violence no longer occur. 
To-day everything goes on peaceably on this wretched earth, and 
it is those who have profited who are for peace. The little peo- 
ples and the remnants of a people have invented a new word — 
that is, international law. In reality it is nothing else than 
their reckoning on our good-natured stupidity. . . . 

"Room — they must make room. The western and southern 
Slavs — or we. Since we are the stronger, the choice will not be 
difficult. We must quit our modest waiting at the door. Only 
by growth can a people save itself." ( Otto R. Tannenberg, Gross- 
Deutschland: die Arbeit des 20ten Jahrhunderts, 1911, pp. 74-75.) 

"We are of the race of the Thunderer; 
We will possess the earth. 
That is the old right of the Germans — 
To win land with the hammer. 

"This right of the Germans arises, let it be said once more, out 
of German civilization, the best on earth. . . . Forward, then, into 
the fight for German aims, and 'far as the hammer is hurled, let 
the earth be ours.' " (Bley, Die Weltstellung des Deutschtums, 
1897, pp. 27-29.) 

"In order to live and to lead a healthy and joyous life we need 
a vast extent of fresh arable land. This is what imperialism 
must give us; at least there would be its chief justification. . . . 
No doubt such winnings of fresh soil can not be made without war. 
Was ever a world power founded without a bloody struggle? Nor 
are we afraid of going down in the fight ; no, rather are we fearful 
that we should be open to the charge made by the Carthaginian 
cavalry general against Hannibal: 'Victoria uti nescis' (Thou 
knowest not how to profit by victory)." (Albreeht Wirth, Yolk- 
stum und Weltmacht in der Geschichte, 1901, p. 235). 

"Our fathers have left us much to do. The German people is 
so situated in Europe that it need only run and take whatever it 



176 Notes and References 

requires. . . . To-day ... it is for Germany to rise from a Eu- 
ropean to a world power. . . . Humanitarian dreams are imbecil- 
ity. Dij^lomatic charity begins at home. Statesmanship is busi- 
ness. Right and wrong are notions indispensable in private life. 
The German people are right because they number 87,000,000 
souls. Our fathers have left us much to do." (0. R. Tannen- 
berg, Gross-DeutscJiland: die Arbeit des 20ten Jahrhunderts, 
1911, pp. 230-31.) 

"Since Bismarck retired there has been a complete change of 
public opinion. It is no longer proper to say 'Germany is satis- 
fied.' Our historical development and our economic needs show 
that we are once more hungry for territory, and this situation com- 
pels Germany to follow paths unforeseen by Bismarck." (Daniel 
Frymann, Wenn Ich der Kaiser ware, 1911, 21ed., 1914, p. 9. 
Frymann's work has been widely read in Germany, much more 
widely indeed than Bemhardi.) 

The above paragraphs taken from "Annotations" accompany- 
ing the President's Flag Day Address, p. 12. 

6. P. 43. It appears that personal religion in Germany has 
been partly converted, by success in war, into a national senti- 
ment, as a worship of the state, or an intensified patriotism. In 
this change the German people appear to find the attributes of 
deity as portrayed in the Old Testament more congenial to them 
than the teachings of the Christ of the New Testament. To give 
yet more specific tribal or racial fiavor, the ancient Teutonic gods 
are called upon. And here the influence of German art and 
literature, and of Wagner's operas, suggests itself, as a means of 
producing unity of mood. 

The following quotation is illustrative : "It was in this same 
spirit that Adalbert Falk abolished the then text-book of readings 
in German elementary schools because it consisted of passages 
from the New Testament and gentle civilian stories. He insisted 
that the elementary readings of school-children must be about the 
heroes of Germanic sagas, about Arminius who overcome the Ro- 
mans in the Teutoburger Wald, or about the victorious campaigns 
of Frederick the Great." {When Blood is Their Argument, by 
Ford Madox Hueffer (Hodder and Stoughton, 1915), p. 106.) 

7. P. 43. "Do not let us forget the civilizing task which the 
decrees of Providence have assigned to us. Just as Prussia was 
destined to be the nucleus of Germany, so the regenerated Ger- 
many shall be the nucleus of a future empire of the west. And 



Notes and Beferences 177 

in order that no one shall be left in doubt, we proclaim from 
henceforth that our continental nation has a right to the sea, not 
only to the North Sea but to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. 
Hence we intend to absorb one after another all the provinces 
which neighbor on Prussia. We will successively annex Den- 
mark, Holland, Belgium, northern Switzerland, then Trieste and 
Venice, finally northern France, from the Sambre to the Loire. 
This programme we fearlessly pronounce. It is not the work of 
a madman. The empire we intend to found will be no Utopia. 
We have ready to hand the means of founding it and no coalition 
in the world can stop us." (Bronsart von Schellendorf, quoted 
by H. A. L. Fisher, in The War^ Its Causes and Issues^ 1914, 
p. 16.) 

''The strongest Germanic State on the continent must take over 
the hegemony ; the smaller ones must sacrifice as much of their in- 
dependence and their language as is necessary to the permanent 
insurance of a new imperial unity. The question of whether mili- 
tary force would become requisite is secondary; but it is essential 
that the State which aspires to the hegemony should have at its dis- 
posal sufficient intellectual, economic, and military power to reach 
this end and hold it fast. Which State would it be? It can be 
only the German Empire, which is now in search of more territory. 
. . . The natural pressure of this new German Empire will be so 
great that, willy-nilly, the surrounding little Germanic States will 
have to attach themselves to it under conditions which we set." 
(Joseph L. Reimer, Ein pangermanisches Deutschland, 1905, pp. 
119-120.) 

"Now, people of Germany, ye shall be masters of Europe [mm, 
deutsches Volk, wirst du Europa's Meister)." (Conclusion of a 
poem, Der Krieg hricJit los, by the excellent German poet, Her- 
mann Stehr, in the first number of the Neue Rundschau after the 
Avar broke out, 1914, p. 1186.) 

The above paragraphs taken from "Annotations" accompany- 
ing the President's Flag Day Address, p. 13. 

8. P. 43. "I hope it (Germany) will be granted, through the 
harmonious cooperation of princes and peoples, of its armies and 
its citizens, to become in the future as closely united, as powerful, 
and as authoritative as once the Roman world empire was, and 
that, just as in the old times they said 'Civis romamus sum' here- 
after, at some time in the future, they will say, 'I am a German 
citizen.' " (Kaiser's speech of Oct. 11, 1900, Christian Gauss, 



178 Notes and References 

p. 169.) From "Annotations" accompanying the President's 
Flag Day Address, p. 14. 

Chapter IV — The Characteristics of a German World 

State 

1. P. 46. "The German government of Alsace-Lorraine is 
typical of what may be expected if Germany annexes more ter- 
ritory as a resnlt of this war. Belgium, Luxemburg, and Russian 
Poland have no more wish to be forcibly joined to Germany today 
than had Alsace-Lorraine in 1870; and if they suffer that fate 
only the threat of arms will keep them in submission. In the 
more than 40 years since its annexation by Germany, Alsace- 
Lorraine has been largely Germanized, yet in 1914 it was still 
bitterly opposed to a Prussianized Government. 

"Since 1911, the Alsatians have looked more than ever toward 
France. In that year public demonstrations against the Prussian 
rule became more pronounced and continued intermittently down 
to the beginning of the war in 1914. In 1912 the Emperor threat- 
ened the discontented Alsatians with complete suppression of their 
constitution unless they ceased their agitations. At the same time 
noticeable increases were made in the garrisons of the leading 
cities, and work upon the fortifications was rushed. In 1913 oc- 
curred the historic Zabern incident which showed the complete 
dominance of the military power over civilian government and 
rights. 'Lieutenant von Forstner, of the garrison, one day re- 
marked in the street that he would give ten marks to any sol- 
dier who would run his bayonet through an Alsatian blackguard. 
In spite of popular indignation he was upheld by his superiors, 
. . . but he was afraid to appear in the streets without a corpor- 
al's guard. He still further earned the hatred of the town by 
striking with his sword a lame shoemaker who had laughed at 
him.' Among the unmilitaristie classes in Germany there was 
great indignation; but in the Reichstag, the ministry, by order 
of the Emperor, upheld the army, without compromise or 
apology. 

"Prussian Poland and North Schleswig fare little if any better. 
The three and a half million Poles in Prussia have been subjected 
in recent years to more severe persecutions than their compatriots 
in autocratic Russia. They have, of course, been deprived of 
their own laws since 1815. More recently, their religious liberty 



Noies and References 179 

has been restricted, and the PoHsh language forbidden in educa- 
tion, in pubhc business, and (with certain temporary exceptions) 
in public meetings, though the great majority of the Polish people 
understand no other language. As a supreme effort at assimila- 
tion the Prussian Government has been trying, partly by vast ex- 
penditure of money and partly by force, to compel the Poles to 
sell their lands and to introduce German colonists to take their 
places. This interference with the Polish laws, religion, language, 
and property was not provoked in the first instance by disloyalty, 
though the Poles have become disloyal in consequence of it. 
Nor have the 150,000 Danes in North Schleswig been saved by 
their inoffensive obscurity, their Lutheran religion, or even their 
Teutonic blood, from similar persecutions, with similar results. 
If left in German hands Belgium may expect to be another 
Schleswig, another Poland. 

"In Austria-Hungary the situation is even worse. The South 
Slavs and the Koumanians in Hungary have been deprived of 
the right to vote (although guaranteed to them in 1867) ; their 
educational institutions have been hampered or closed, their eco- 
nomic development interfered with. And this is the work of the 
Hungarian Government v/hich has Germany's warmest approval in 
all such measures." Taken from "Annotations" accompanying the 
President's Flag Day Address, pp. 23-24. 

2. P. 46. Ibid. 

2a. P. 47. See Russia in Upheaval, by E. A. Ross (Cen- 
tury Company, 1918), pp. 122-3. 

3. P. 53. "It is our sacred duty to sharpen the sword that 
has been put into our hands and to hold it ready for defense as 
well as for offense. We must allow the idea to sink into the 
minds of our people that our armaments are an answer to the 
armaments and policy of the French. We must accustom them 
to think that an offensive war on our part is a necessity, in order 
to combat the provocations of our adversaries. We must act 
with prudence so as not to arouse suspicion and to avoid the 
crises which might injure our economic existence. We must so 
manage matters that under the heavy weight of powerful arma- 
ments, considerable sacrifices, and strained political relations the 
precipitation of war (Losschlagen) should be considered as a 
relief, because after it would come decades of peace and pros- 
perity, as after 1870." (Memorandum of the German Govern- 
ment on the strengthening of the German Army, Berlin, March 



180 Notes and References 

19, 1913; French Yellow Book, Carnegie edition, 1915, I, p. 
542.) From "Annotations" accompanying the President's Flag 
Day Address, p. 13. 

4. P. 53. "You say that a good cause hallows even war. I 
tell you that a good war hallows every cause." Friedrich 
Nietzsche, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Chapter on "Wars and 
Warriors," in Conquest and Kultur, p. 32. 

Chapter V — The Sources of the German Strength 

1. P. 55. One who would have a correct picture of the hard 
work of the German officers and of the strictness with which they 
are held to their tasks can perhaps do no better than read the 
book Seine Englische Frau by Rudolph Stratz, translated under 
the title His English Wife by A. C. Curtis. (Longman's 1915.) 

2. P. 56. Karl Kautsky, the Editor of Neue Zeit said in 
January, 1914: "What, indeed, is the army? It is termed the 
people in arms. To it belong all men capable of bearing arms, 
whether they are actually domiciled in barracks or not. One who 
should speak of a gulf between those who are and those who are 
not fit for military service would be regarded as a fool. No. 
When the army is spoken of, something entirely different is meant 
— it is the caste of officers, who consider themselves the army, the 
upholders of the defense of the nation. As a matter of fact, there 
is as deep a line of demarcation running through the army as 
that which has been created in agricultural and industrial life 
between the great owners of the materials of production and the 
'have-nots.' " In Review of Reviews, February, 1914 

3. P. 57. We shall never have the right kind of civil service 
in our country until there is a free avenue of promotion to the 
highest positions. At the present time the positions that really 
signify something, like commissionerships, are usually awarded to 
men taken from the outside. The result is that no matter how 
able a man may be, however excellent the service that he has 
rendered and is capable of rendering, he sees across his way a bar 
marked : "Thus far and no farther." This is one of the rea- 
sons why the work in the civil service is so frequently spiritless, 
the only wonder being that it often reaches as high a degree of 
excellence as it does. When a few years ago in Madison, Wis- 
consin, the postmastership became vacant, a man was promoted 
from the ranks to be postmaster; the result was excellent, and 



Notes and References 181 

it is probably no exagg-eration to say that it helped to bring the 
right spirit into the whole force. 

4. P. 62. Dr. David Jayne Hill in his extremely interesting 
and valuable article, /'Impressions of the Kaiser," which appeared 
in Harper's Magazine for Jmie, 1918, has the following to say 
about the perversion of the emperor's right to bestow titles : 
"Every German professor is proud to wear 'the King's coat.' 
When he does not wear that, he is proud to wear the Order of the 
Red Eagle — the Black Eagle is usually too much to hope for — 
third or fourth class. Not to become a Geheimrath is to live a 
wasted life. And this is not wholly a matter of vanity. It is 
social status. It is more than that ; it is a baptism, a chrism, in a 
holy service, the service of the Emperor, who is a king by 'divine 
light.' Not that every German professor really believes in 'divine 
right' ; for, logically, that would imply the existence of a divinity, 
in whom frequently he does not believe. To him the expression 
means that the Kaiser is divinely right, because he symbolizes the 
might of Germany. To be a conscious part of this higher system, 
a privy councilor, is to attain a great height; but to be a 'Wirk- 
licher Geheimrat,' with the attribute of 'Excellency,' that is to 
reach the highest pinnacle of earthly honor attainable by a German 
professor. 

"In private many Germans would, no doubt, be disposed to 
smile over the strange conception of values implied in this pas- 
sion for decorations; but no one would dispute the fact that the 
expectation of imperial recognition exerts a powerful influence 
over the German mind. It would, no doubt, be unjust to say that 
these honors work the miracle of making otherwise democratic 
minds imperialistic. The more exact statement would be, that, 
to minds already bred to imperialism, these honors have a value 
which to others they could never seem to possess, and are on that 
account an important means of extending the influence which the 
Kaiser is able to exert over thought and its expression by the 
learned world." 

I hesitate to disagree with Dr. Hill, but I cannot believe that the 
view he presents is at all adequate. Things have not been going 
well in the German monarchies in recent years, that is to be 
admitted ; and doubtless the power to bestow recognition has often 
been perverted to secure humiliating subservience, but for the 
most part during the nineteenth century, so far as I am able 
to judge, recognition by those in authority has promoted excel- 



182 Notes and References 

lence and helped build up good leadership. For us in the United 
States the lesson is to be found in the establishment and cultiva- 
tion of sources of honor appropriate to a democracy. 

Chapter VI — The Struggle for Equality of Opportunity in 

American History 

1. P. 68. Annual Report of the Comptroller of the Cur- 
rency. Figures for years 1774 to 1860, inclusive, taken from 
Vol. 2 of the 1916 Report. Figures from 1879 to 1917, inclu- 
sive, taken from Vol. 1 of the 1917 Report. 

la. P. 72. See the work Applied Eugenics by Popenoe & 
Johnson, Ch. Ill, "Differences Among Men." Published in the 
Macmillan Social Science Text Book Series, 1918. 

2. P. 75. From Educational Reform: Essays and Addresses 
I)y C. W. Eliot, Chapter VIII, "An Average Massachusetts 
Grammar School," pp. 191-193. (The Century Co., N. Y., 
1898.) 

3. P. 77. We have common and high school training empha- 
sizing literary learning, and looking toward the so-called "learned 
professions." These professions once ranking highest, equality 
of opportunity seemed to mean that all should have a chance at 
them. Thus the schooling of the lower grades has been a narrow 
bookish process; and the system has done little, until recently, for 
the farmer, the craftsman, or the clerk. We have had a theory of 
equality of opportunity based upon aristocratic contempt for the 
crafts and the basic kinds of useful economic service. 

4. P. 79. Hamlin Garland, Son of the Middle Border, pp. 
174-175 (The Macmillan Company, N. Y., 1917). From such 
classes the I. W. W. is recruited. This organization is chiefly ' 
composed of unskilled agricultural laborers in the upper middle 
states of the plains, and in the far west. "The I. W. W.," says 
Mr. Carleton H. Parker, "is but a phenomenon of revolt. The 
cure lies in taking care of its psychic antecedents." ("The I. 
W. W.," Atlantic Monthly, November, 1917, p. 662.) 

The most influential I. W. W. leader, when asked why the 
I. W. W. was unpatriotic said: "You ask me why the 
I. W. W. is not patriotic to the United States'? If you were a 
bum without a blanket; if you had left your wife and kids when 
you went West for a job, and had never located them since; if 
your job never kept you long enough in a place to qualify you 



Notes and References 183 

to vote; if you slept in a lousy sour bunk-house, and ate food 
just as rotten as they could give you and get by with it ; if deputy 
sheriffs shot your cooking cans full of holes and spilled your grub 
on the ground; if your wages were lowered on you when the 
bosses thought they had you down; if there was one law for 
Ford, Suhr, and Mooney, and another for Harry Thaw; if every 
person who represented law and order and the nation beat you 
up, railroaded you to jail, and the good Christian people cheered 
and told them to go to it, how in hell do you expect a man to 
be patriotic?" 

This is a howl of rage of a neglected class which rises while 
the public, clinging to wOm-out formulas of freedom of compe- 
tition, prevents the experts from applying proper remedies. What 
does the complaint contain : lack of properly co-ordinated employ- 
ment exchanges, lack of industrial housing, and lack of efficient 
camp canteens. It speaks of hard wage bargaining, of the law's 
delays, and the mischievous complexities of our trial procedure 
and it points to our ridiculous system of handling tramps under 
the fee system. Who is to blame? On the one hand, the public 
is to blame, because it has not chosen the experts from its member- 
ship, and set them at work upon these problems. On the other 
hand, we must blame the evil in men's nature as it is revealed 
in the perverse leadership of the I. W. W. Those who have misled 
men in ways of deviltry and those who have been misled are not 
to escape all blame, as some soft sentimentalists would have us 
think. But it may be admitted that especial responsibility at- 
taches to those higher up in the scale, who have had the advan- 
tages of culture and wealth and have used these advantages 
thoughtlessly and selfishly, in the spirit of Cain, seeming to say, 
"Am I my brother's keeper f 

5. P. 85. When Blood is Their Argument^ by Fred Madox 
Hueffer (Hodder & Stoughton, 1915), p. 11. 

Chapter VII — Tests of Actual and Proposed Social and 
Political Measures 

1. P. 93. The experience of Wisconsin gives ample demon- 
stration of what is here said, and it is desirable that this experi- 
ence should serve as a warning to all other states which have not 
gone so far as we in Wisconsin have in this wrong way. Our sys- 
tem has made it extremely difflcult^ if not practically impossible, 



184 Notes and References 

'for certain classes of men to become candidates for elective office, 
and among these men who are shut out from elective office, there 
may be those who would be most useful; and particularly, in a 
great crisis like the present, it is deplorable that selection cannot 
be made freely from all ranks of citizens. With a professor in 
the White House, who looms up large as a gTeat leader of the na- 
tions of the world, it is at least conceivable that a professor in the 
University of Wisconsin might render service of high order in 
Congress; but the opinion has been expressed by those whose 
opinion has great weight that a professor should resign from the 
University before even becoming a. candidate, that he should not 
even be granted leave of absence until elected. While this opinion 
has never received formal official sanction, it throws a lurid light 
upon primary elections. Whether the opinion that a professor 
should resign before allowing his name to be used as a candidate 
for Congress is wise or not, strong grounds can be given for it. 
First, we have the ordeal of the primary for nomination, then the 
election after nomination; and there is danger that the political 
contest would make enemies for the University in the state legis- 
lature. There is little or no chance for non-partisan nominations 
and elections under the Wisconsin primary system. Under the 
old convention system nomination could come without contest, and 
it was possible that without any unseemly political wrangling and 
machinations a candidate could be elected and that without the 
expenditure of large sums of money or such an unreasonable ex- 
penditure of time as to interfere with one's duties while a candi- 
date. It is suggested that the primary system in Wisconsin is a 
fruitful field for exploitation both for monographic studies and 
for clever journalists. Wisconsin has done many things of which 
all citizens of the State may well be proud, but the primary elec- 
tion laws are reactionary, not progressive, and at best it is going 
to take a long time to recover from their disastrous effects. Wise 
men, like the late Colonel William F. Vilas, probably Wisconsin's 
greatest citizen, warned us against the system as undemocratic, 
but only to be upbraided and denounced as non-progressive and 
an old fogy, if not a friend of the "interests." 

2. P. 100. See article, "Schwab, Leader of Men," by Frank 
Parker Stockbridge in The World's Work for July, 1918. 



Notes and References 185 



Chapter VIII — The Foundations of Leadership 

1. P. 108. "The Vision for Which We Fight" is the title of a 
forthcoming book by A. M. Simons. 

2. P. 110. Los Angeles, California, appears to be among the 
leaders in helping to make naturalization what it should be. The 
plan there is to have a public ceremony when each class is ready 
for papers with music, pictures, speeches, etc. Also "Citizenship 
Schools" have been established in that city and the teacher's 
certificate is accepted by the judge in place of the unsatisfactory 
oral examination. 

3. P. 112. For this purpose our best thinkers and most patri- 
otic citizens of all economic classes — employers and employees, 
socialists and non-socialists — are giving constantly increasing 
support to the "League to Enforce Peace" ; but observe, it is to 
enforce peace, and this means military service, now and hereafter. 
This is certainly the opinion of the leaders of this League. This 
idea, was brought out. again and again in the speeches before the 
meeting of the League in Philadelphia in May of this year, and 
every utterance in favor of universal military training and service 
was most warmly applauded. 

4. P. 115. Surgeon General Blue has stated in an address be- 
fore the General Federation of Woman's Clubs, held at Hot 
Springs, Arkansas, May 3, 1918, that the report of the Provost 
Marshal General shows that approximately twenty-nine per cent, 
of registrants examined for the draft were rejected on account of 
pTiysical or mental defects. The first and most important fact to 
be grasped in this connection, he said, was that in a large propor- 
tion of instances, the physical defects that so commonly handicap 
adults in the struggle for a livelihood would not exist if they had 
been properly dealt with in childhood. 

5. P. 117. Being Well Born, by Michael F. Guyer, pp. 302- 
304. 

6. P. 118. Ibid., pp. 306-307. 

7. P. 119. For an illuminating discussion of the relations be- 
tween "the leaders and the led" in a democracy see "The Principle 
of Balance" by Edward Alsworth Ross in the American Journal 
of 'Sociology for May, 1918. 

8. P. 120. Taken from "The Duty and Discipline Movement" 
circular letter. (117 Victoria Street, London, S.W., England.) 



186 Notes and References 



Chapter X — Leadership in Public Life 

1. P. 135. American Magazine, April, 1918, p. 16. 

2. P. 136. Ex-President Eliot has said that one weakness of 
the United States is lack of consideration for the expert. This 
weakness is shown in American legislation, which is seldom 
framed in consultation with experts, and which embodies in law a 
mass of detailed provisions which could be much better supplied 
by the public officer to fit the conditions of execution. 

3. P. 144. "But several things will have to be done by our 
public school system before education can become the powerful 
instrument of social progTess which it should be. In the first 
place, more attention will have to be given to the finding and 
training of social leaders than has yet been given. Nothing great 
is accomplished in human society without leadership; and ad- 
vances in a high civilization depend upon finding and training 
leaders along many lines. The higher institutions of education 
should be especially charged with this function. They are making 
a beginning, to be sure, in Western civilization in finding and 
training leaders along a number of lines ; but the general field of 
social leadership they are still largely neglecting. They are pro- 
ducing experts in law and medicine, in agriculture and engineer- 
ing, but experts in dealing with the larger problems of human liv- 
ing together very rarely ; yet these latter are the ones most needed. 
The superior society of the future, in other words, must be pro- 
duced just as we are to produce the superior engine. It must be 
produced by the trained scientific mind that knows social facts and 
forces so that it can map out and plan a superior social organiza- 
tion. The superior individual and the superior society are not 
antitheses, but correlatives. Only our educational system must 
be brought to realize that social values are not carried by indi- 
viduals alone or wholly wrapped up in the concept of personality; 
but that they are also carried by institutional forms and inhere in 
the larger social life. "We must pay attention to the development 
of the individual and his personality ; but we should do so remem- 
bering that that development is largely for the sake of society, 
that is to say the larger life of humanity." The Scientific 
Monthly, November, 1917. "The Educational Theory of Social 
Progress," by Professor Charles A. Ellwood. 

4. P. 144. " 'It is no clap-trap to say that this is a chemists' 
war and that it may be won in a laboratory/ said Major S. M. J. 



Nates and Beferences 18'7 

Auld, Chemical Advisor of the British Military Mission, in his 
address at the City Club on March 21. 'There is always, for in- 
stance, the possibility of a gas being discovered against which 
there is no protection under conditions which prevail in the field. 
The side which does this first has pretty nearly won the w^ar. 
Both sides are striving for this and it is work for your best 
chemists. 

" 'Gas has come to stay in this war. Few persons not at the 
front realize the extent to which it is used. Nearly one-fourth 
of the German shells are gas shells. Fifty thousand of such 
shells were fired into one town in a few hours one night. The 
French estimated that a million of them were fired against a few 
miles of their front within a month.' 

"England did not at first appreciate her chemists, according 
to Major Auld. Many of them, he said, were allowed to go to the 
front when they should have been kept at home for research. 
After the development of gas warfare, a body of chemists was 
organized to go into the trenches to do the gas fighting, but it 
was soon discovered that it was work for plumbers, not for 
chemists. 'Chemists now, however, are not taken to the front 
except for scientific work that must be done in the field or just 
behind the lines. There are laboratories, for instance, where 
German shells are examined in order that we may know at all 
times what the Germans are up to. A chemical advisor is at- 
tached to each headquarters staff.' " The City Club Bulletin, 
Chicago, Vol. XI, No. 12, Monday, March 25, 1918, p. 103. 

5. P. 149. One great defect in our American university is the 
failure to place the professorship where it should be. Too often 
as compared with the president of the university on the one hand 
and the successful business man on the other hand, the professor 
seems a very humble man as he is generally an underpaid man ; 
and sometimes he is looked upon as a mere hired man. Probably 
few trustees of our higher institutions of learning would be will- 
ing to concede the point for which the professors are contending 
that the professor is not to be looked upon as an employee any 
more than a justice of the Supreme Court, but as an appointee, no 
more to be controlled by the trustees than the Justice by the ap- 
pointing power. Only one great benefactor of an American uni- 
versity seems to have had it clearly in mind to exalt the professor- 
ship and that one is the late William F. Vilas, whose will, a great 
educational document, provided for professorships with salaries 



188 Notes and References 

from five to ten thousand dollars, with assistantships, funds for 
research, limitation of teaching that could be required to three 
hours a. week ; and jDrovision was especially made for tenure of 
office during good behavior after a possible three year probation- 
ary period. This means eventually life tenure as cause for ter- 
mination of the professorship has to be proved before a specially 
described tribunal. 

Owen Wister in his wonderful book The Pentecost of Calam- 
ity, describes the astonishment of men of other nations that we 
so long kept silence after the invasion of Belgium, the sinking of 
the Lusitania, and other German atrocities. He quotes these lines 
from tlie London Punch on the sinking of the Lusitania: 

" 'In silence you have looked on felon blows, 

On butcher's work of which the waste lands reek; 
Now, in God's name, from Whom your greatness flows. 
Sister, will you not speak f" (P. 134.) 

The question is especially asked why our universities should have 
remained dumb. To this Mr, Wister replied: "Our universities 
do not and cannot sit like yours in high seats, inspiring public 
opinion." (p. 135.) 

The professorship in the American university must occupy a 
very different position from that which it now holds before our 
universities will, as Mr, Wister says, "sit in high seats, inspiring 
public opinion." 

Simply to avoid any misapi3rehension, I want to say that for 
my part I feel that we must retain the leadership of the presi- 
dency of the American university while at the same time putting 
the professorship where it should be. Our American experience 
shows the necessity of the presidency under our American con- 
ditions. While it should be changed as well as the professorship, 
the presidency is to be looked upon as a necessary good rather 
than as a necessary evil. We have in what is here said a great 
educational program requiring the best brains we have for its 
solution. This is not the place to enter into a discussion of this 
problem. 

Chapter XI — Six Lamps of Social Progress 

1. P, 160, The Atlantic Monthly, June, 1918. 

2, P. 161. "He cannot make any effective advance towards na- 



Notes and References 189 

tional fulfillment merely by educating himself and his fellow- 
countrymen as individuals to a higher intellectual and moral level, 
because an essential condition of really edifying individual educa- 
tion is the gTadual process of collective education by means of col- 
lective action and formative collective discipline. On the other 
hand, this task of collective education is far from being complete 
in itself. It necessarily makes far greater demands upon the 
individual than does a system of comparative collective irre- 
sponsibility. It implies the selection of peculiarly competent, 
energetic, and responsible individuals to perform the peculiarly 
difficult and exacting parts in a socially constructive drama; and 
it implies, as a necessary condition of such leadership, a prog- 
ressively higher standard of individual training and achievement, 
unofficial as well as official, throughout the whole community. 
The process of educating men of moral and intellectual stature 
sufficient for the performance of important constructive work 
cannot be disentangled from the process of national fulfillment by 
means of intelligent collective action. American nationality will 
never be fulfilled except under the leadership of such men ; and 
the American nation will never obtain the necessary leadership 
unless it seeks seriously the redemption of its national responsi- 
bility." Promise of American Life, by Herbert Croly (The 
Macmillan Company, 1909), p. 428. 

3. P. 161. Educational Reform, by Charles W. Eliot, Chap- 
ter XVIII, "The Function of Education in Democratic Society," 
p. 415. 

4. P. 161. Ibid., p. 416. 

5. P. 161. "The common citizen can become something of a 
saint and something of a hero, not by growing to heroic propor- 
tions in his own person, but by the sincere and enthusiastic imita- 
tion of heroes and saints, and whether or not he will ever come to 
such imitation will depend upon the ability of his exceptional 
fellow-countrymen to offer him acceptable examples of heroism 
and saintliness." Promise of American Life, by Herbert Croly, 
p. 454. 



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